# The C'RILLOS Project: Impact of Tobacco Regulatory Policy on Dynamic Use of Exclusive, Dual or Poly Cigar and Other Tobacco Product Use among Young Adults

> **NIH NIH R01** · RUTGERS BIOMEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES · 2024 · $810,958

## Abstract

Project Summary
African-Americans/Blacks (AA/B) and Hispanics/Latinos (H/L) are vastly underrepresented in tobacco
regulatory sciences research. Yet as their smoking persists, these groups bear the most significant burden of
tobacco-related health diseases, including cancer. These disparities are due, in part, to the use of flavored
tobacco products, like little filtered cigars and cigarillos (LCCs), and the tobacco industry’s aggressive
promotion of LCCs to AA/B and H/L communities. An intended consequence of the anticipated flavor ban is the
smoking reduction of flavored LCCs. However, the tobacco industry’s repackaging of their flavored tobacco
products and their rhetoric about over-policing and discrimination against AA/B smokers threatens to disrupt
the health equity impacts of the impending flavor ban. Critical gaps in the scientific evidence exist about the
effects of exposure and receptivity to cigar product repackaging and socio-political rhetoric on AA/B and H/L
young adults’ (YA) smoking behavior. Our proposed project seeks to address gaps and provide evidence to the
FDA’s Impact, Marketing, and Behavioral domains by answering: “Do cigar product repackaging and rhetoric
about over-policing and illicit cigar trade influence AA/B and H/L YA’s flavor ban perceptions and predict future
LCC smoking behaviors among non-users and current users?

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10925158
- **Project number:** 5R01DA058261-02
- **Recipient organization:** RUTGERS BIOMEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES
- **Principal Investigator:** Kymberle L Sterling
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $810,958
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2023-09-15 → 2028-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10925158

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10925158, The C'RILLOS Project: Impact of Tobacco Regulatory Policy on Dynamic Use of Exclusive, Dual or Poly Cigar and Other Tobacco Product Use among Young Adults (5R01DA058261-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10925158. Licensed CC0.

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