For the first time in two decades, there has been an increase in Big Tobacco's annual cigarette sales to wholesale companies and retailers nationwide, the FTC details in its Cigarette Report for 2020.
Per the report, made public on Tuesday, a total of 203.7 billion units were sold by the largest US cigarette companies in 2020, versus an estimated 202.9 billion units sold in 2019.
"According to the 2020 Smokeless Tobacco Report, smokeless tobacco sales increased from 126.0 million pounds in 2019 to 126.9 million pounds in 2020", the FTC highlighted. "The revenue from those sales rose from $4.53 billion in 2019 to $4.82 billion in 2020".
The FTC report included a number of firsts, including reporting on nicotine lozenges or nicotine pouches not containing tobacco, which raked in approximately $420.5 million for the sale of 140.7 million units.
Additionally, 2020 marks the first time FTC data includes information on smokeless tobacco products. Menthol accounted for around 54.5% of sales revenue for all smokeless tobacco products, regular (tobacco) flavored smokeless tobacco represented 43.4% of total sales revenue.
The new FTC new report comes on the heels of the first round of e-cigarette marketing authorisations in the US.
The latest move by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorised three tobacco products as appropriate for the protection of public health, and came about as part of the federal agency's "robust, scientific premarket evaluation" and efforts to reduce Americans' exposure to known harmful chemicals, according to Mitch Zeller, director of the FDA's Centre for Tobacco Products.
Some have argued that an increase in e-cigarette use has contributed to a spike in individuals who vape cannabis.
A new study published on Monday in the peer-reviewed medical journal JAMA Pediatrics determined that the lifetime prevalence of cannabis vaping adolescents more than doubled from 2013 to 2020 (from 6.1% to 13.6%). The research was based on a systematic review and meta-analysis that parsed 17 studies from the US and Canada, and included 198,845 respondents.