90% of 2,506 Doctors Think E-cigarette Advertising Should Be Restricted
U.S. SERMO members react to new CDC report on exposure to e-cigarette
ads among teens
NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–SERMO, the leading global social network for physicians, announced the
results of a poll today that found 90 percent of 2,506 doctors think
that there should be restrictions on advertising for e-cigarettes
similar to restrictions on traditional cigarettes.
The poll was launched on January 7th in reaction to a new
Vital Signs report from the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention that found e-cigarette ads are reaching 7 in 10 teens.
Another survey published
last year by the CDC found that e-cigarette use tripled among US teens
in 2014, with more high school students puffing on the devices (13.4%)
than traditional cigarettes (9.2%).
Cigarette advertising was barred from both television and radio under
the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act of 1969 in an effort to reduce
the smoking rate, but so far e-cigarette advertising has remained
unrestricted.
“The smoking rate among teens is alarming and needs to be addressed
to protect the health of our children,” said Dr. Linda Girgis, SERMO
member and family physician. “Teens are being inundated with
advertisements for e-cigarettes that make smoking look cool and sexy.
They are being encouraged by the tobacco companies to take up this nasty
habit that could have deadly consequences. We need to limit teens’
exposure to these e-cigarette advertisements to keep them from getting
hooked.”
Participants in this poll were self-selected rather than being targeted
from a probability sample, so no estimates of sampling error can be
calculated when projecting to the universe of physicians. However, the
margin of error when projecting to active SERMO members is ±2% as all of
these members were invited by email to participate in the poll. It is
calculated at the standard 95% confidence level. Therefore we can be 95%
confident that the sample result reflects the active SERMO member base
within the margin of error. This calculator is based on a 50% result in
a poll, which is where the margin of error is at its maximum. All sample
surveys and polls may be subject to multiple sources of error,
including, but not limited to sampling error, coverage error, and
measurement error. More information about the methodology can be found
at http://www.sermo.com/polls.
About SERMO
SERMO is the leading social network for physicians – the virtual
doctors’ lounge and the home of medical crowdsourcing – where doctors
anonymously share their true feelings about their profession and lives
and talk ‘real world’ medicine. SERMO has more than 500,000 fully
verified and licensed members and is now available for doctors in
fifteen countries: Argentina, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Ireland,
Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa,
Spain, Sweden, the UK and the US. Founded in the US in 2005, SERMO’s
mission is to revolutionize real world medicine and to unite physicians,
providing them with a safe, private and trusted platform for free and
open discussions. SERMO harnesses the collective wisdom of doctors,
enabling medical crowdsourcing, knowledge sharing and thus the
advancement of medicine.
SERMO is also the world’s largest healthcare professional polling and
survey company with 1.6 million healthcare professional members in both
the social network and a digital research network, spanning 80
countries. SERMO conducts 700,000 surveys a year.
Learn more at www.SERMO.com
Contacts
SERMO
Randi Kahn, o: +1-212-358-0800 x967
m: +1-631-697-8310
Public
Relations Manager
randi.kahn@sermo.com
or
Racepoint
Global
Cassidy Lawson, +1-202-517-1378
clawson@racepointglobal.com
or
SERMO
Osnat
Benshoshan
Chief Marketing Officer
osnat.benshoshan@sermo.com
