g., FDA related), and SLT as a smoking alternative or harm-reduction product, issues that tended to co-occur and were coded as one thematic category (19%) called ��new products/product regulation/harm reduction�� (see Table 1). Articles in this category differed from business news articles that referred to new products because they also included general this research interest, public health, and policy perspectives (e.g., quotes from public health professionals, scientists, citizens, legislators, etc.). Notably, about 58% of these articles referred to SLT products as being/possibly being less risky or harmful than smoking (see Table 2). This topic category was most frequently found both in national (37.7%) and tobacco hometown papers (32.2%) (see Table 1). Articles focusing on other SLT issues were generally present more frequently among state papers.

SLT prevention/cessation-related articles included references to local events or programs (32.5%), SLT cessation methods or resources (16.9%), and personal stories of SLT cessation (26%) (see Table 2). News articles also discussed SLT in terms of taxation, with about half (52.2%) of these referring to changing SLT��s taxation method, that is, moving toward taxing by weight versus percentage of price or vice versa. Nine percent of articles focused on profiles/trends in SLT use (including among particular populations or individuals) with about 28% of these describing SLT prevalence as having grown or as being above average. News articles also discussed SLT-related bans (8.1%) (e.g.

, in public places such as parks, schools) and issues related to SLT promotional activities (5%), such as SLT company sponsorship of racing or rodeo events as well as opposition to such activities. Regardless of the main topic, articles were also coded for various user or lifestyle associations made with SLT. About 10% included some association with baseball, such as SLT prevalence among baseball players, player use as poor role modeling for youth, and banning SLT in baseball. In addition, 8.6% of articles included some non-health-related negative SLT perception (e.g., characterizations of SLT spitting as ��disgusting��) (data not in table). SLT Health Risks Although health risks were not frequently a main article topic (see Table 1), reference to some SLT health risk was present in 36.9% of articles. Specifically, articles referred to SLT as addictive (25.

6%), carcinogenic or toxic (8.9%), and as being associated with particular health effects (25.4%) (e.g., cancer) (Table 3). The presence of any SLT health risk references was significantly associated with the main SLT topic of the article (X2 = 189.6, df = 7, p < .001)��for example, risk references were most frequent GSK-3 in articles about new products/product regulation/harm reduction (69.