Effect of the Food and Drug Administration Ban against Flavored Cigarettes on Risky Behaviors among teenagers in the US.

Abstract

This research is conducted to investigate the effect of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ban against flavored cigarettes in 2009 on risky behaviors among teenagers in the US. Risky behaviors are categorized as sexual risk, bodily harm from uncalculated risks and weight issues risk from lack of physical activity which is highly correlated with alcohol and illicit drug use. This research uses a multivariate regression model to examine the relationship between cigarette smoking and risky attitudes among teenagers by gender, race, age, and grade. Data from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey System and Tobacco tax burden is utilized. The results show that cigarette smoking is positively correlated to alcohol drinking and marijuana use indicating a potential complementarity effect. The ban on flavored cigarettes reduces smoking and generally increases risk awareness among young people in the US for both smokers and nonsmokers.