Flavored Tobacco Restriction Policy Support in New York and the United States, 2022

Use of flavored commercial tobacco products, including menthol cigarettes, flavored vaping products, and flavored cigars, remains a serious public health concern with implications for health equity. Flavored tobacco use is more prevalent among some populations of adults, including among Black adults; young adults; and adults who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or questioning or queer.

This paper explores the prevalence of support for flavored tobacco sales restrictions among a representative sample of adults in New York (NY) and the United States (US).

We analyzed cross-sectional data from the New York Adult Tobacco Survey and United States Adult Tobacco Survey collected in 2022 to estimate prevalence of support for policies that ban the sale of menthol cigarettes and flavored tobacco products other than menthol cigarettes.

In 2022, support for banning the sale of menthol cigarettes and/or flavored tobacco was lower among adults who use tobacco, including flavored and/or menthol tobacco; non-Hispanic White adults; males; and those living outside of urban areas. In the same year, 47.1% of NY adults and 37.3% of adults nationally supported both policies banning the sale of menthol cigarettes and the sale of flavored tobacco products other than cigarettes. Support for one policy but not the other was uncommon in NY and nationally. Support for policies that ban the sale of menthol cigarettes was higher in NY than in the U.S. in 2022 among those who use tobacco (32.0% in NY vs 19.3% in the US) and those who use flavored tobacco products (25.8% in NY vs 16.3% in the US).

Understanding population support for flavored tobacco restrictions provides opportunities for tobacco control programs to tailor education, communications, and surveillance planning at the local, state, and federal levels.