Tobacco Product Issues - Progress & Metrics - Altria

Our tobacco operating companies have a number of programs designed to address tobacco product issues. The outcome of some of their activities is described below:

COMMUNICATING TOBACCO HEALTH EFFECTS

• Altria Group’s tobacco companies communicate about the health effects of their tobacco products. Every single pack of cigarettes, tin of smokeless tobacco and pack of cigars from these companies display the U.S. Surgeon General’s warning. In 2010, Philip Morris USA and U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company began using new, larger warnings on smokeless tobacco products to comply with federal law.
• PM USA, USSTC and John Middleton websites provide information on tobacco use, including messages from and links to the U.S. Surgeon General and other public health authorities.
• Between 2002 and 2008, PM USA placed miniature brochures that communicated the health effects of cigarette smoking on more than a billion packs.
• Since 2000, PM USA scientists have published more than 570 articles in scientific literature and made more than 570 presentations in scientific conferences and meetings.

REDUCING THE HEALTH EFFECTS OF TOBACCO USE

• PM USA and USSTC authored a chapter titled "Tobacco Harm Reduction and the Tobacco Control Act" for the Food and Drug Law Institute’s publication, Tobacco Regulation and Compliance: An Essential Resource.

POSITIVE YOUTH DEVELOPMENT GRANTS

• Together, Altria’s tobacco companies are leading funders of positive youth development in the U.S. The three companies provided a combined $19.1 million in grants in 2011, and since 1998, PM USA has provided about $297 million in grants to help kids avoid risky behaviors like tobacco use.
• Altria’s tobacco companies estimate that programs funded through 2011 grants will reach more than 1.5 million kids and nearly 775,000 adult influencers, primarily in the southeast.
• With funding from PM USA, the University of Virginia’s Youth-Nex Center for Effective Youth Development held its first conference to advance the theory and practice of positive youth development (PYD). This conference brought together leaders in the field of PYD research to discuss topics such as risk avoidance, media usage, peer influence, physical activity and well-being and youth citizenship.
• Altria’s tobacco companies support LifeSkills® Training, a PYD and risky behavior prevention program for middle school students that has been found to reduce tobacco, alcohol and other drug use by 50-75 percent. During the 2010-2011 school year, nearly 100,000 middle school youth across ten southeastern states and Washington, D.C. received LifeSkills® Training. An additional 98 schools representing about 13,000 youth were recruited for implementation during the 2011-2012 school year.

UNDERAGE RETAIL ACCESS PREVENTION

• Federal law requires all cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products to be merchandised in a clerk-assisted manner. In addition, Altria’s tobacco companies’ trade programs require their respective products – including Middleton’s cigar products – to be merchandised in a non-self-service manner. Thanks, in part to Middleton’s trade program requirements, through 2011, almost 80 percent of Middleton’s volume was merchandised in a non-self-service manner.
• Between 2004 and 2011, the We Card program, supported by Altria’s tobacco companies, distributed more than two million training, age-calculation and signage materials. Between 2009 and 2011, We Card® provided 92,660 trainings to retail employees.
• In 2011, We Card launched an updated retailer training program, responsible retailing best practices and fact sheets with content related to FDA regulation of tobacco products. We Card also conducted direct outreach to retailers that received warning letters from the FDA for alleged illegal tobacco sales to minors.
• Middleton continued to advocate at the state level for non-self-service retailing of cigar products – consistent with federal regulations governing sales of cigarette and smokeless tobacco products.

RESOURCES FOR PARENTS

• Altria’s tobacco companies support the Search Institute’s ParentFurther_SM website. This is an online resource to help parents and other caring adults raise healthy kids. The site offers content on topics such as preventing underage tobacco and alcohol use, financial literacy and school success. In 2011, ParentFurther.com recorded more than 565,000 unique visits, exceeding its target of 515,000.

SUPPORTING CESSATION

• Since 2003, PM USA has invested more than $190 million in cessation support research and resources. In 2011, USSTC and Middleton began funding the QuitAssist® resource. Nearly 3.2 million visitors have used the QuitAssist website since it launched in 2004.
• In 2011, we redesigned the site in order to:
  • feature the most prominent government-endorsed quitting resources;
  • include content to support quitting tobacco use, not just quitting smoking; and
  • maintain the encouraging and supportive tone of the site.
• Through funding from PM USA, in 2011, researchers looking into improved cessation methods published ten articles and eight abstracts.
• The Duke Center for Nicotine and Smoking Cessation Research continues to investigate and report new and better smoking cessation methods. To date the center has achieved a number of advancements in smoking cessation research. For example, the center has developed and validated a new nicotine patch dosing regimen that doubles abstinence rates. It has also developed a treatment strategy to identify smokers who do not respond to nicotine replacement therapies and who may benefit from switching to alternative therapies.