News & Updates

A review by ASPiRE’s team at Stanford, reported in Health & Place, looked at international peer-reviewed literature with evidence of the density and proximity of tobacco retail outlets to homes, schools, and communities and their association with smoking among youth in 1990-2019. The review found evidence of a relationship between the density of tobacco retail [...]

A case study in Tobacco Control looked at restrictions on the sale of non-cigarette tobacco products with a flavor other than tobacco, menthol, mint, or wintergreen. Researchers compared scanner data from Providence and the rest of Rhode Island, which illustrated the cigarillo industry’s response to the sales restriction. They found that Providence consumers were exposed [...]

The Philadelphia Inquirer recently published a powerful op-ed by Ryan Coffman, tobacco policy and control program manager for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health – and a member of our Community Advisory Board. Ryan blasted the tobacco industry for suing to overturn legislation passed by the Philadelphia City Council that restricts the sale of candy-flavored [...]

ASPiRE recently joined the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids to conduct a nationwide media campaign to publicize the center’s research on tobacco retail density in 30 U.S. cities. The two-week campaign reached over 3 million broadcast viewers, radio listeners and on-line readers in more than two dozen of the nation’s largest media markets. It also resulted [...]

For Immediate Release: August 12, 2020 Contact: Dave Lemmon, 202-738-7983 WASHINGTON, D.C. – Across 30 major U.S. cities, an average of 63% of public schools are located within 1,000 feet – about two city blocks – of a tobacco retailer, according to a comprehensive new study mapping tobacco retailers in the 30 cities. The study [...]

ASH (Action on Smoking & Health) and the Public Health Law Center, an ASPiRE Community Advisory Board member, will host a webinar at 12 p.m. EDT on Wed., June 25: U.S. Tobacco Policy and Enforcement During COVID-19 Shutdown. The webinar will examine the intersection of state and local policy responses to COVID-19 and commercial tobacco [...]

In its call for papers, “Addressing Health Disparities and Improving Population Health in Diverse Communities and Settings,” Preventing Chronic Disease invites authors to submit manuscripts describing innovative and effective work that addresses factors contributing to health disparities and improvement of population health. The CDC cites a range of community-based, technically innovative, and clinically driven prevention [...]

The Oakland City Council unanimously voted May 12 to ban the sale of flavored and menthol tobacco products at all tobacco retailers, closing the so-called “tobacco store” loophole in the city’s 2017 ordinance. The exemption had permitted retailers to continue selling flavored tobacco at “adult-only” tobacco stores. As detailed by ASPiRE CAB member Paul Cummings [...]

A town health board whose members sniffed flavored cigars before penalizing a convenience store for selling them acted within its authority, the Massachusetts Appeals Court has ruled. The April 17 ruling came after a convenience store chain appealed a lower court ruling upholding the actions of the Yarmouth, MA, Board of Health in fining the [...]

The COVID-19 pandemic appears to be having a dramatic effect on local tobacco-control efforts across the U.S. Personnel have been repurposed in whole or in part to focus on responding to the virus, while the enforcement of tobacco regulations has been put on the back burner, if not entirely frozen. In Philadelphia, for example, the [...]