RENO, Nevada – Countries across Latin America should either ban or substantially tighten regulation of new tobacco products such as electronic cigarettes and heated tobacco products, recommends a new study led by a researcher at the University of Nevada, Reno.

Currently, the study finds Latin American and Caribbean countries are taking wildly divergent approaches toward the regulation of new tobacco products, Dr. Eric Crosbie, an assistant professor in the University’s School of Public Health and the Ozmen Institute for Global Studies, said.

The new regional analysis is important because it helps show how deeply the new tobacco and nicotine products are penetrating markets in the region and helps identify the government regulations that may be most effective in battling their adoption, says Crosbie.

Without tighter regulation or an outright ban on new tobacco products, Latin American and Caribbean nations could face the creation of a new generation of tobacco and nicotine users, cautions the study to be published in the journal Tobacco Control.

Crosbie, who specializes in the study of the ways that business interests drive the spread of non-communicable diseases, says consumption of traditional tobacco products such as cigarettes is falling globally. That leads tobacco companies to ramp up promotion of new tobacco and nicotine products, sometimes under the guise that they are useful tools for smokers who want to quit.

“These new tobacco and nicotine products, which are promoted by the companies as cessation devices to help smokers quit, are in reality a new way to recruit new tobacco and nicotine users,” Crosbie said.

In response to the introduction of new tobacco and nicotine products, the new study finds, Latin American and Caribbean governments are undertaking a variety of regulatory approaches.

More than half of the 33 countries in the region, for instance, regulate e-cigarettes as conventional tobacco products. But a substantial minority of countries don’t regulate them at all.

Regulation of heated tobacco products, meanwhile, ranges from complete bans in Mexico, Brazil and Panama to a complete lack of control in a handful of countries that have no tobacco-control legislation at all for these products.

Conventional tobacco products such as cigarettes, chewing tobacco or cigars fall under the purview of a global treaty known as the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control spearheaded by the World Health Organization. It recommends evidence-based measures such as product bans or tighter regulation to reduce tobacco use.

But because the new tobacco and nicotine products were introduced after the Framework Convention was established in 2005, governments are tasked with regulating these products similar to conventional tobacco products, Crosbie noted. That puts more importance on the regulatory measures taken in individual countries, not only in Latin America and the Caribbean but across the globe.

Other researchers joining Crosbie in the study were Brian Tran of the University’s School of Public Health and Gianella Severini, Alexandra Beem, and Dr. Ernesto Sebrie of the Campaign for Tobacco - Free Kids in Washington, D.C.