Cigarette sales jumped during the pandemic
Cigarette sales have spiked during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, according to new data published in Annals of Internal Medicine.
Cigarette sales were tracked from March 2020 to June 2021 and compared with expected sales for the same period. Overall, the authors identified an increase in sales of up to 14.1%.
The team also examined data the past several years, noting that cigarette sales had actually declined from January 2007 to February 2020.
“The evidence of excess sales was valid even after we analyzed cigarette sales with in a one-month lag from the month when cigarette supply was released from manufacturers to allow for the transit of cigarettes from the factory to the point of retail sales and an increase of 9.0%,” wrote lead author Samuel Asare, PhD, a specialist with the American Cancer Society, and colleagues.
The authors also emphasized that the increase in sales "went beyond the first three months of the COVID-19 pandemic," lasting a full 16 months after it had started.
"This finding is also consistent with anecdotal claims by the tobacco industry about halting the long-term decline in cigarette sales during the COVID-19 pandemic,” they added.
The study did have limitations. Most notably, national-level data did not mirror individual or state-level variations in cigarette sales. Also, the group wrote, "the cigarette sales measure used in this study should be considered as only a proxy for actual consumption because unrecorded cross-border purchases and illicit trade may cause deviation between tax-paid sales and actual consumption."
Read the full study here. Information from the American Heart Association focused on smoking and its impact on a person's health is available here.