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FDA delays long-awaited decision on flavored e-cigs

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On Sept. 9, the Food and Drug Administration postponed a decision on whether many tobacco products that entered the market since 2007, including flavored e-cigarettes, can be sold. In a statement, the FDA said it has denied marketing applications for nearly 1 million flavored e-cigarettes because companies did not provide enough evidence that any potential [...]

Lessons learned from menthol restrictions in Minnesota cities

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This study examined three successful tobacco retail policy initiatives to restrict menthol tobacco availability in Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Duluth, Minnesota, using key informant interviews with community leaders and members. Theme analysis indicated that strong city council support, leadership from impacted communities, awareness-building campaigns, and education about tobacco industry counter-tactics facilitated these initiatives. Challenges included [...]

CA study finds complex associations between T21 and use of tobacco products

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Researchers from the University of California–Berkeley investigated associations between California’s 2016 T21 law and adolescent use of tobacco products, including differences across racial and ethnic groups. Comparing 2010–2011 and 2017–2018 health survey data, the study found that the T21 policy was associated with a reduced prevalence of lifetime smokeless tobacco and e-cigarette use, and past-month [...]

Young adults in vulnerable communities more likely to see tobacco ads

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Retail advertising is the primary way young adults are exposed to tobacco marketing in their daily lives. A new study co-authored by ASPiRE’s Kurt Ribisl found that young adults from vulnerable communities are at increased risk of seeing any tobacco marketing, and especially the marketing of flavored tobacco. The paper concludes that policies curtailing tobacco [...]

New GIFs, PDFs available for your media toolbox

The American Heart Association has developed a series of well-done GIFs and PDFs to support policy work on tobacco flavors and tobacco retail licensure. You’re welcome to share them with your networks. See the flavors/menthol GIFs. See the tobacco retail licensure GIFs and PDFs. [...]

Number of tobacco retailers in the U.S. increased between 2000-2017

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Researchers from the ASPiRE team at the University of North Carolina, led by ASPiRE’s Shelley Golden, developed a protocol to identify U.S. tobacco retailers between 2000 and 2017. Using industry codes and retailer names from a national database, they calculated annual counts of tobacco retailers, together with retailer openings and closings. They found a net increase [...]

CDC publishes user guide on partnerships and tobacco control

As tobacco control programs are asked to do more with fewer resources, partnerships have become more important. The CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health has published a new Best Practices User Guide: Partnerships in Tobacco Control. Written in partnership with members of the ASPiRE team from WashU’s Center for Public Health Systems Science, the guide [...]

More, densely packed tobacco retailers make for less-healthy behaviors

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There are 27 brick-and-mortar tobacco retailers for every one McDonald’s restaurant in the U.S., equaling 375,000 tobacco retail locations. Retailers are not equally distributed, but tend to be clustered in lower-income and minority communities. New research concludes that living near more tobacco retailers is linked with people being more likely to use tobacco and less [...]