Researchers at Case Western Reserve University recently co-authored a piece titled “’Phantom smokers’: Young cigarillo users who do not identify as smokers.” Their piece was published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence.
The researchers were:
- Rock Lim, now a student;
- Karen J. Ishler, senior research associate at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences;
- Erika S. Trapl, associate professor in the Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences and associate director of the Prevention Research Center for Healthy Neighborhoods; and
- Susan Flocke, former associate director of the Prevention Research Center for Healthy Neighborhoods.
The research examined the prevalence and characteristics of those who use non-cigarette tobacco products but do not identify as smokers. These individuals often fail to recognize the health risks associated with usage and feel little push to quit.