Cigarette butts to estimate the illicit cigarette consumption proportion in a major Brazilian city.

Background: Illicit cigarette consumption (ICC) results in cheaper cigarettes and lost tax revenue. Although several methods estimate the ICC proportion, the one based on cigarette butt (CB), the most littered item worldwide, is less common. This study aimed at estimating the ICC proportion of Guarujá, a major Brazilian city, based on littered CBs.

Unaddressed non-energy use in the chemical industry can undermine fossil fuels phase-out.

Around 13% of fossil fuels globally are used for non-combustion purposes. Fossil fuel processing plants, such as petroleum refineries, exhibit interdependent material and energy system dynamics, making the transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems more challenging without addressing the non-energy outputs. This study explores the future role of fossil fuels for non-energy purposes in climate-stringent scenarios with restrictions on alternative feedstock availability, focusing on the primary chemicals sector.

Bitter taste of the tobacco industry interference in Brazil.

Objective: Although Brazil became the first country worldwide to ban the sale of all tobacco products with any additive that could alter their flavours and tastes in 2012, its implementation was effectively halted by tobacco industry lawsuits, including a constitutional challenge filed in the Federal Supreme Court in 2013. This study aimed at examining, for the first time in the country, the evolution over time of the new registrations of tobacco products with additives that would have been banned if not for the tobacco industry's interference ('counterfactual scenario').

Methods: We used the newly available public database on the registration of tobacco products developed by the Health Regulatory Agency (from 2008 onwards).

Maternal Smoking Prevalence in Brazil in 2013 and 2019: Not What We Expected When They Were Expecting!

Introduction: Monitoring tobacco use during pregnancy is critical for achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. We examined changes between 2013 and 2019 in the relative differences in smoking prevalence rates between pregnant and nonpregnant women aged 18-49 years.

Aims And Methods: We used data from a nationally representative health survey conducted in Brazil in 2013 and 2019.