News & Updates

Sign up for regular updates .

Resources now available to help frame messaging about tobacco disparities

ChangeLab Solutions and the CDC have partnered to help tobacco prevention staff and partners frame their communications on tobacco-related health disparities in ways that minimize racial biases and foster support for effective policy solutions. Messaging that focuses on disparities can reinforce biases about the communities that are most harmed by commercial tobacco, leading policymakers to [...]

LA prohibits flavored tobacco sales

City of Los Angeles seal

The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously June 1 to ban the sale of all flavored tobacco products except flavored shisha tobacco, allowing it to be sold in some hookah lounges. The law does not ban the possession or use of flavored tobacco, only its sale. The ban is scheduled to go into effect January [...]

Fewer exemptions, better research needed to strengthen retail policies and evaluation

research article icon

A qualitative review of published research that evaluated tobacco sales policies found a moderate to high quality of evidence associating policies with reduced availability, marketing, and sales of policy-restricted products, as well as decreased youth and adult tobacco use of the products. But the authors also found policy exclusions and exemptions, implementation challenges, tobacco industry [...]

Stronger packaging policies could curb cigar use, study suggests

research article icon

Cigar packaging features such as small pack sizes, innovative materials, flavor names, bright colors, and cost-saving promotions are prevalent among the top-selling products, concludes a study of packaging of top-selling cigars in the U.S. Stronger packaging-focused policies at the federal and local levels may help reduce appeal and potentially curb cigar use, conclude the authors [...]

Restrictions on the sale of flavored e-cigs associated with a reduction in total e-cig sales

research article icon

Statewide restrictions on the sale of flavored e-cigarettes in Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, and Washington were associated with a reduction in total e-cigarette sales, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The authors say their findings suggest that not all e-cigarette users who purchased non-tobacco-flavored e-cigarettes switched to [...]

CAB surveys suggest ways to make research accessible

research article icon

A paper in Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention and Policy based on your responses to surveys during our CAB meetings focuses on CAB member preferences for receiving scientific evidence and ways to use it. The paper, led by Virginia McKay and co-authored by other members of the ASPiRE team at WashU, analyzed the results of the [...]

Passing complementary pricing policies would strengthen impact of higher cigarette taxes

research article icon

Also in the 30th anniversary issue of Tobacco Control, a special communication by ASPiRE’s Kurt Ribisl and Shelley Golden proposes strategies for making higher tobacco excise taxes even more effective. Designing those taxes to raise prices frequently and substantially for all products, along with minimum price laws and bans on coupons, discounts, and other promotions [...]