News & Updates

In just nine pages, a new resource available from the Public Health Communications Collaborative covers all the steps of creating a plain-language communications product, from considering your audience to testing your products before release. Read the guide. [...]

Cleveland (an ASPiRE city) is considering an ordinance to prohibit the sale of menthol cigarettes and other flavored tobacco products. Cleveland Public Health Director Dr. David Margolius said Cleveland has the highest smoking rate in the nation at 35%, well above the national average of 12%. “Most smokers, in Cleveland specifically, want to quit,” Margolius [...]

In February, the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of a lower court ruling affirming Los Angeles County’s 2019 law prohibiting the sale of flavored tobacco products, including menthol cigarettes and flavored e-cigarettes. The Public Health Law Center called the court’s denial “an important victory for public health” that “preserves the clear authority of [...]

On March 10, officials in Chicago (an ASPiRE city) announced a $23.8M settlement with JUUL Labs over claims that the company was engaged in harmful and deceptive business practices by marketing and selling vaping products to underage users. Dr. Allison Arwady, Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, applauded the announcement. “E-cigarette businesses cannot [...]

An interactive report from the Council on Foreign Relations examines how nationwide bans on menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars, as proposed by the Biden administration on April 28, 2022, could help shrink the racial gap in U.S. lung cancer death rates. “We find that the ban, if implemented effectively, would indeed close the disparity in [...]

A 2022 Truth Initiative tracking survey of nearly 1,300 people age 15-20 who use e-cigarettes found that while most obtained their devices through a social source, 43% got them from a retail source. Most popular sources were vape shops and gas stations/convenience stores. The youths got their devices despite federal, state, and local policies that [...]

Last year, the FDA authorized the sale of the first low-nicotine cigarettes as modified-risk tobacco products, and a survey of the first retail test market in Chicago was recently published by ASPiRE’s Lisa Henriksen and co-authors. Researchers called all 133 Chicago-area Circle K stores and later visited those stores to asses VLN product placement, advertising, [...]

An evaluation team led by ASPiRE’s Todd Combs and Veronica Chaitan, in collaboration with Interact for Health of Ohio, recently released a report of the team’s findings from a study of the successful efforts to pass, implement, and enforce Tobacco 21 in local communities. The report found that retailer support for Tobacco 21 increased during the [...]

A CDC study co-authored by ASPiRE’s Maggie Mahoney found that nearly two-thirds of adults support prohibiting menthol cigarette sales, while more than half support prohibiting all sales of tobacco products. The findings were based on a web panel survey of 6,455 U.S. adults age 18 or older. No significant racial and ethnic group differences were [...]

The Detroit News cited ASPiRE’s research in a recent story about efforts to pass a statewide ban on flavored tobacco products in Michigan. “Eighty-five percent of the city’s population lives within a 10-minute walk of a tobacco retailer, according to ASPiRE, a center funded by the National Cancer Institute,” the story reported. The data is being [...]

Each month, we conduct a search of the PubMed database for new peer-reviewed articles on the retail tobacco environment and policy. Many of these articles are available for FREE. The March 2023 PubMed search results are now available. Check them out! And check back after the first Tuesday of each month for a new list.  [...]

Each month, we conduct a search of the PubMed database for new peer-reviewed articles on the retail tobacco environment and policy. Many of these articles are available for FREE. The February 2023 PubMed search results are now available. Check them out! And check back after the first Tuesday of each month for a new list.  [...]

ASPiRE partner, the Public Health Law Center, released a “best practices” summary for inspections of tobacco retailers to ensure compliance with laws that restrict the minimum legal sales age or sales restrictions on flavored tobacco. Topics include the frequency of checks, responses to violations, and focusing on “high risk” retailers, such as those with previous [...]

The New York Times reported that R.J. Reynolds has responded to California’s prohibition on the sale of most flavored tobacco products with a marketing campaign touting new nonmenthol versions of Camel and Newport brands that it says offer “a taste that satisfies the senses” and “a new fresh twist.” The California law prohibits the sale [...]

A paper by Bukola Usidame, a new ASPiRE team member from Purdue University, and coauthor Lisa Henriksen looked at the association between local tobacco retail licensing ordinances and adult cigarette use in California. They found limited evidence that stronger licensing laws were associated with lower odds of smoking cigarettes. The authors said future studies should [...]

A study of 242 tobacco retailers in Kentucky, New Jersey, New York, and North Carolina examined the availability of nicotine pouches and disposable e-cigarettes. Researchers found that pouches were more likely to be available in census tracts with a greater percentage of non-Hispanic White residents, while disposable e-cigarettes were more likely to be available in [...]

A recently published study by ASPiRE’s Amanda Kong and Joseph Lee found greater tobacco and alcohol product availability in North Carolina communities with highly concentrated racial or economic segregation. Researchers created a list of probable tobacco retailers, along with a list of alcohol retailers from the state alcohol commission and compared then to three census [...]

Each month, we conduct a search of the PubMed database for new peer-reviewed articles on the retail tobacco environment and policy. Many of these articles are available for FREE. The January 2023 PubMed search results are now available. Check them out! And check back after the first Tuesday of each month for a new list.  [...]

Each month, we conduct a search of the PubMed database for new peer-reviewed articles on the retail tobacco environment and policy. Many of these articles are available for FREE. The December 2022 PubMed search results are now available. Check them out! And check back after the first Tuesday of each month for a new list.  [...]

A webinar by the University of California-San Francisco’s Smoking Cessation Leadership Center focused on the projected impacts of cigarette tax increases and other interventions in Tobacco Nation, the 13 states in the southern and midwestern U.S. with disproportionately high rates of smoking. Speakers were Emily Donovan, senior researcher for Truth Nation in Washington; and Michael [...]

A research team led by Daniel P. Giovenco of Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health used a packaging archive of the top-selling, mass-market cigar products in the U.S. and their corresponding sales data to assess the prevalence of common pack features in the marketplace. They found that the most popular brand did not display [...]

A partnership between CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health and the Center for Public Health Systems Science at Washington University is developing a new set of supplements to CDC’s popular Best Practices User Guides for tobacco control. The second and third supplements on Mapping Techniques and Retail Strategies to Support Health Equity are now available. [...]

On December 6, a federal judge in Washington ordered the major U.S. tobacco companies to post signs next year at nearly 200,000 retail outlets that sell cigarettes, warning potential buyers of the health risks. The order will fully implement the “corrective statements” the tobacco companies were first ordered to make in 2006, when U.S. District [...]

An evaluation of the 2018 menthol tobacco sales restrictions implemented in Minneapolis and Duluth found mixed reactions among youth ages 14-17. Many of the youth who were interviewed obtain tobacco through peers, family members, and online. The youth observed decreases in retail advertising of menthol cigarettes, although many felt e-cigarettes and online advertising were more [...]

A study by researchers in New York examined changes in nicotine product use among youth after the passage of a statewide restriction on the sale of flavored e-cigarettes in 2020. The team conducted online surveys of youth ages 16-19. Over a two-year period, they found significant decreases in past 30-day e-cigarette use, cigarette use, and [...]

Enforcement of Tobacco 21 laws was the subject of a paper co-authored by ASPiRE’s Amanda Kong. Researchers focused on New Jersey, one of several states that increased the tobacco age-of-sale to 21 prior to passage of the federal law in 2019. The study sent five buyers aged 18-20 to 86 retailers between August 2019 and [...]

A study co-authored by ASPiRE’s Lisa Henriksen examined possible unintended consequences of restricting tobacco sales to state-owned liquor stores in the 12 states with government retail monopolies on liquor. Researchers examined survey data from nearly 15,000 adults who responded to the 2015 or 2020 U.S. National Alcohol Survey, including more than 2,000 in one of [...]

ASPiRE’s Joseph G.L. Lee (East Carolina University) and ASPiRE partner Shyanika W. Rose (University of Kentucky) co-authored a study that audited retailers in four states to analyze neighborhood distribution of the availability of disposable e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches. Both products were available in about half the stores audited in Kentucky, New Jersey, New York, and [...]

Contracts between tobacco companies and retailers was the subject of an October 21 podcast from Counter Tobacco, featuring ASPiRE’s Allie Reimold (UNC). We learned about the impact of those contracts on the retail environment at our May 2021 CAB meeting. For more details, read the paper she co-authored in Tobacco Control, which concluded that those [...]

Each month, we conduct a search of the PubMed database for new peer-reviewed articles on the retail tobacco environment and policy. Many of these articles are available for FREE. The November 2022 PubMed search results are now available. Check them out! And check back after the first Tuesday of each month for a new list.  [...]

Each month, we conduct a search of the PubMed database for new peer-reviewed articles on the retail tobacco environment and policy. Many of these articles are available for FREE. The October 2022 PubMed search results are now available. Check them out! And check back after the first Tuesday of each month for a new list.  [...]

Expanded flavor restrictions linked to reduced sales in the Twin Cities Expanding restrictions on the sale of flavored tobacco products to include menthol, mint, and wintergreen in Minneapolis and St. Paul was associated with greater decreases in sales of menthol cigarettes and smokeless tobacco than in other areas, according to a report in Tobacco Control. [...]

The ASPiRE team from the University of North Carolina argues that retail policy changes in that state would bolster attempts to reduce youth tobacco use and eliminate tobacco-related disparities. The commentary, published in the North Carolina Medical Journal, describes the evidence for point-of-sale policies including Tobacco 21 laws, restrictions on advertising and promotions, flavored tobacco [...]

ASPiRE’s Amanda Kong and her co-authors found that tobacco’s importance as a driver of retail traffic in British convenience stores declined significantly from 2016 to 2019. Researchers analyzed electronic point-of-sale systems data from 1,253 convenience stores. Their results undermine industry claims that tobacco sales are essential to the viability of convenience stores. Read the paper. [...]

For this recent study, Henriksen and colleagues surveyed young adults in the Atlanta, Boston, Minneapolis, Oklahoma City, San Diego, and Seattle metro areas who use e-cigarettes. The results illustrate how consumers from jurisdictions with different regulatory landscapes responded to FDA’s removal of flavored cartridge e-cigarettes (other than tobacco or menthol flavors) that were on the market [...]

In a commentary published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, ASPiRE’s Lisa Henriksen and her co-authors examine the impact of new state and federal laws, cannabis legalization, and other regulatory complexities that have affected how e-cigarettes are being marketed and their effect on public health. Topics discussed include youth access, consumer [...]

We’re excited to announce our award of one ASPiRE pilot grant for 2022: What do you think? Experts weigh in on the feasibility and impact of various retail tobacco policies New policies for tobacco control might be easy to propose, but harder to get approved and implemented. Todd Combs (Center for Public Health Systems Science at the [...]

The Public Health Law Center has updated two factsheets that provide general information about tobacco advertising restrictions regarding content, time, place, or manner. Each factsheet includes examples of these restrictions and describes potential legal challenges. Read Content-Neutral Advertising Laws (2022 update). Read Restricting Tobacco Advertising (2022 update). [...]

The Food and Drug Administration has posted transcripts and recordings of two listening sessions on its proposed menthol ban that were held in June, as a complement to comments submitted during the formal commenting process. Each session began with an FDA explanation of its proposed restrictions, after which members of the public were able to [...]

Each month, we conduct a search of the PubMed database for new peer-reviewed articles on the retail tobacco environment and policy. Many of these articles are available for FREE. The September 2022 PubMed search results are now available. Check them out! And check back after the first Tuesday of each month for a new list.  [...]

Researchers from the University of Texas audited advertising data from convenience stores and gas stations around middle and high schools in the state’s metro areas, then simulated a 1,000-foot ban of tobacco sales around the schools. They found that schools with a higher enrollment of Hispanic/Latino and economically disadvantaged students were surrounded by more advertising [...]

Retail tobacco sales data may be a good alternative to the traditional “gold standard” tobacco retail surveys to better adapt to the rapidly changing tobacco retail landscape, reports the CDC Foundation in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. The proliferation of new kinds of e-cigarettes and other tobacco products will require new methods to rapidly [...]

Photos of cigarettes displayed on the shelves of 160 New York City tobacco retailers were used by New York University researchers to document the potential impact of a menthol cigarette ban. Menthol cigarettes displays averaged about 25% of the displayed cigarettes overall, but that percentage was significantly greater in areas with higher smoking rates, with [...]

Researchers from Boston College found that county-level restrictions on flavored tobacco products were associated with reduced use of cigarettes and e-cigarettes by adolescents in Massachusetts. The local restrictions limited the sale of flavored tobacco products to adult-only retail tobacco stores.  “Local legislation can reduce adolescent tobacco use, and municipalities should enact stricter tobacco-control policies when [...]

Recent studies have estimated the harm of menthol cigarettes in the U.S. from 1980-2018 among both the general population as well as among African Americans specifically, and have estimated the public health impact of a US ban on menthol in cigarettes and cigars in the general population. The FDA’s proposed rule cited these impactful studies [...]

Counter Tools and Truth Initiative partnered in 2018 to develop retail tobacco store assessment questions focused on menthol and other flavored products; those questions were later revised to include e-cigarettes. Now, a new report assessing marketing at retailers in five cities in Illinois, Missouri, and Ohio (including Cleveland) is available on-line, with downloadable resources. See [...]

A partnership between CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health and the Center for Public Health Systems Science at Washington University is developing a new set of supplements to CDC’s popular Best Practices User Guides for tobacco control. The Tobacco Where You Live supplements help state and local programs understand how commercial tobacco use varies within [...]

In an effort led by Sarah Mills, ASPiRE has filed a public comment with the Food and Drug Administration describing the public-health benefits of a comprehensive ban on the sale of menthol-flavored cigarettes, proposed by the FDA in April. The filing cited numerous studies that provide evidence that menthol is associated with the initiation of [...]

Each month, we conduct a search of the PubMed database for new peer-reviewed articles on the retail tobacco environment and policy. Many of these articles are available for FREE. The August 2022 PubMed search results are now available. Check them out! And check back after the first Tuesday of each month for a new list.  [...]

Each month, we conduct a search of the PubMed database for new peer-reviewed articles on the retail tobacco environment and policy. Many of these articles are available for FREE. The July 2022 PubMed search results are now available. Check them out! And check back after the first Tuesday of each month for a new list.  [...]

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 [...]

The Los Angeles Times recently published a revealing story about how the tobacco industry has used the deaths of George Floyd and Eric Garner at the hands of police to alarm Black smokers about proposals to prohibit the sale of menthol cigarettes. Paid lobbyists for Big Tobacco have suggested to legislators that banning menthol would [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

In the 30th anniversary issue of Tobacco Control, ASPiRE’s Amanda Kong and Lisa Henriksen note that an increasing number of countries have set goals for dramatic reductions in smoking. But to achieve those goals and promote health equity, policies are needed to reduce retail sales and visibility of tobacco products. Focusing on retailer reduction strategies [...]

An ASPiRE team led by Todd Combs combined geospatial data on residential and tobacco retailer density in our CAB cities and found that a large majority of urban residents live in tobacco swamps – neighborhoods where there is a glut of tobacco retailers. Their study, published in Health & Place, simulated the effects of tobacco [...]

Each month, we conduct a search of the PubMed database for new peer-reviewed articles on the retail tobacco environment and policy. Many of these articles are available for FREE. The June 2022 PubMed search results are now available. Check them out! And check back after the first Tuesday of each month for a new list.  [...]

Each month, we conduct a search of the PubMed database for new peer-reviewed articles on the retail tobacco environment and policy. Many of these articles are available for FREE. The May 2022 PubMed search results are now available. Check them out! And check back after the first Tuesday of each month for a new list.  [...]

The ASPiRE Center is awarding pilot grants of $10,000 each for the 2022-2023 grant cycle to fund developmental or early stage work, with the purpose of advancing D&I science and building capacity for D&I research in evidence-based tobacco retail policy. More information and downloadable application materials are available here. [...]

Each month, we conduct a search of the PubMed database for new peer-reviewed articles on the retail tobacco environment and policy. Many of these articles are available for FREE. The April 2022 PubMed search results are now available. Check them out! And check back after the first Tuesday of each month for a new list.  [...]

Each month, we conduct a search of the PubMed database for new peer-reviewed articles on the retail tobacco environment and policy. Many of these articles are available for FREE. The March 2022 PubMed search results are now available. Check them out! And check back after the first Tuesday of each month for a new list.  [...]

This new resource will equip tobacco prevention and control staff with the knowledge, context, and resources to understand how preemption influences their work. Readers will learn about different forms of preemption, key steps and legal considerations for determining local authority, and strategies communities are using to make progress despite preemption of local point-of-sale policies. Read [...]

Researchers including National Cancer Institute (NCI) Project Officer Annette Kaufman and former Project Officer Bob Vollinger used the NCI 2020 Health Information National Trends Survey to examine public opinion of proposed restrictions on tobacco product placement and advertising at point-of-sale and on social media. The authors found broad support—for example, 60% of U.S. adults support [...]

Previous studies inferred that hookah lounges and vape shops cluster near colleges from evidence of greater density and closer proximity to campuses. However, this study, including ASPiRE’s Nina Schleicher and Lisa Henriksen, developed a new approach to test for spatial clustering. The authors compared the observed locations of hookah lounges, vape shops and all tobacco [...]

This study, co-authored by ASPiRE CAB member Geoffrey Fong, analyzed the effects of Canadian point-of-sale (POS) tobacco display bans on quit attempts and smoking cessation. The study found that adults who smoke cigarettes and were living in a province with a POS ban in place for at least two years had a greater chance of [...]

TIME Magazine recently published a story about the tobacco industry’s funding of controversial tobacco-prevention programs in schools, which public health experts say don’t work and promote the idea that tobacco giants really care about kids. In January, Malcolm Ahlo, our ASPiRE CAB member in Las Vegas, was offered the chance to apply for a grant [...]

Tobacco companies handsomely incentivize retailers around the world to follow harsh requirements related to selling and marketing tobacco products through contracts that fly under the radar of both consumers and policymakers. These agreements allow tobacco manufacturers to give their products primary placement in stores, discount their pricing and target specific demographics. Such rigorous control undermines [...]

Each month, we conduct a search of the PubMed database for new peer-reviewed articles on the retail tobacco environment and policy. Many of these articles are available for FREE. The February 2022 PubMed search results are now available. Check them out! And check back after the first Tuesday of each month for a new list.  [...]

This study with ASPiRE authors Kong, Golden, Ribisl, and Vandegrift evaluates compliance with a US Department of Defense (DoD) policy requiring stores on military bases to set tobacco prices comparable to stores in the surrounding community. The authors conducted store audits of 23 on-base and 50 off-base retailers in Texas. They found the median price of [...]

Ads for little cigars that implied health claims and featured premium branding and sensory descriptors were found by researchers in retail settings near schools. Although the FDA prohibits using inaccurate, reduced-risk descriptors on tobacco product advertising, researchers visiting 530 retailers near California middle and high schools photographed and content analyzed cigar ads, finding 44% of [...]

A study co-authored by Henriksen and ASPiRE researchers Monika Vishwakarma, Trent Johnson, and Nina Schleicher examined compliance at 614 California vape shops with state-mandated age-of-sale signs, the presence of age-of-entry signs, and the tobacco industry’s “We Card” sign in 2019. The researchers found that compliance with the age-of-sale sign was 69.4%, with vape-only stores less [...]

Each month, we conduct a search of the PubMed database for new peer-reviewed articles on the retail tobacco environment and policy. Many of these articles are available for FREE. The January 2022 PubMed search results are now available. Check them out! And check back after the first Tuesday of each month for a new list.  [...]

Each month, we conduct a search of the PubMed database for new peer-reviewed articles on the retail tobacco environment and policy. Many of these articles are available for FREE. The December 2021 PubMed search results are now available. Check them out! And check back after the first Tuesday of each month for a new list.  [...]

The CDC Foundation has produced data briefs on U.S. trends in e-cigarette sales, including trends in several states. The briefs update trends in sales of e-cigarettes by product and flavor type. These briefs are intended to provide information about population trends in sales for participating retailers; they don’t include online sale or vape store sales, [...]

After more than 50 years of research, we know what works to reduce commercial tobacco use. Yet evidence-based interventions are not reaching the people who need them most, and tobacco use remains the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S. Now, the CDC has published a new guide designed to help programs like yours [...]

The investigators examined the effects of California’s tobacco and cannabis policies on the availability of tobacco. Recent laws prohibit the sale of flavored tobacco and set minimum pack sizes for little cigars and cigarillos (LCCs), while increasing availability of cannabis through more permissive sales and marketing policies. The study found that the cannabis policies were [...]

This study systematically reviewed papers that evaluated flavored tobacco sales policies implemented in the United States during 2010-2019. From these papers, the authors developed a model to assess outcomes, assigned quality-of-evidence ratings to outcomes, and identified factors that might explain weak or inconsistent findings. Moderate- to high-quality evidence existed to associate policy implementation with reduced [...]

In telephone interviews with adults who smoke cigarettes and/or use electronic delivery systems, researchers found several changes in the use and purchase of inhaled tobacco products during the initial COVID-19 stay-at-home period in the U.S. Community-level changes centered on product accessibility and were reflected primarily in purchasing patterns. Interpersonal-level changes reflected shifts in household dynamics [...]

The authors, including ASPiRE’s Lisa Henriksen, analyzed survey data from 3,000 young adults in six metropolitan areas to examine e-cigarette use, advertising and media exposure, and age verification experiences during purchase. Consistent with previous studies, the research found a positive, possibly reciprocal, association between e-cigarette use and advertising/media exposure. The survey also pointed to poor [...]

By making cheaper cigarettes available in poorer, younger, and more rural neighborhoods, dollar stores may contribute to smoking inequities, according to a study whose co-authors include ASPiRE’s Lisa Henriksen and Nina Schleicher. Using data from California on tobacco retailers, the researchers found that census tracts with lower median household income, rural status, and higher proportions [...]

This study, co-authored by ASPiRE’s Amanda Kong, Paul Delamater, Kurt Ribisl, Chris Baggett, and Shelley Golden, investigates census tract racial, ethnic, and sociodemographic characteristics to determine their association with tobacco retailer density. Results indicated that a higher percentage of Black and Latino residents was associated with a higher tobacco retailer density in both the tract [...]

Each month, we conduct a search of the PubMed database for new peer-reviewed articles on the retail tobacco environment and policy. Many of these articles are available for FREE. The October 2021 PubMed search results are now available. Check them out! And check back after the first Tuesday of each month for a new list.     [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

At the beginning of each month, we conduct a search of the PubMed database for new peer-reviewed articles on the retail tobacco environment and policy.  Many of these articles are available for FREE. The September 2021 PubMed search results are now available. Check them out! And check back after the first Tuesday of each month [...]

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. [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

At the beginning of each month, we conduct a search of the PubMed database for new peer-reviewed articles on the retail tobacco environment and policy. Many of these articles are available for FREE. The August 2021 PubMed search results are now available. Check them out! And check back after the first Tuesday of each month [...]

Last month, Juul Labs agreed to pay North Carolina $40 million to settle the first of many lawsuits brought by states claiming the e-cigarette company’s marketing contributed to widespread nicotine addiction among youths. The settlement was announced as the Food and Drug Administration is deciding whether its vaping products can stay on the market. Read [...]

Data from more than 1,300 smokeless tobacco retailers in Oklahoma showed that convenience stores, found and used more often in rural than in metropolitan areas, are disproportionately more likely to engage in marketing strategies that could lure youth into smokeless tobacco use. Read the paper. [...]

A study from the University of Chicago examined JUUL’s advertising efforts in 2018 and 2019. Touted as an effort to combat underage use, in 2018, JUUL invested $30 million investment in ads, primarily promoting the products and emphasizing its role in smoking reduction. In 2019, the company spent $36.2 million in advertising. These marketing activities [...]

A study in Columbus, Ohio, examined whether compliance checks with Tobacco 21 were related to retailer characteristics, including neighborhood poverty level, in-store T21 signage, and cashier behaviors and perceptions of the law. The authors found that compliance with ID checks was lower in high-poverty neighborhoods and higher among retailers using scanners for ID checks. They [...]

A paper in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine based on the dissertation of ASPiRE’s Amanda Kong (UNC) found that the density of tobacco retailers, especially gas stations and convenience stores that sell tobacco products, was associated with adult smoking behaviors. Read the paper. Kong also posted a brief “tweetorial” about the data. [...]

At the beginning of each month, we conduct a search of the PubMed database for new peer-reviewed articles on the retail tobacco environment and policy.  Many of these articles are available for FREE. The July 2021 PubMed search results are now available. Check them out! And check back after the first Tuesday of each month [...]

At the beginning of each month, we conduct a search of the PubMed database for new peer-reviewed articles on the retail tobacco environment and policy.  Many of these articles are available for FREE. The June 2021 PubMed search results are now available. Check them out! And check back after the first Tuesday of each month [...]

The ASPiRE Center is awarding pilot grants of $10,000 each for the 2021-2022 grant cycle to fund developmental or early stage work, with the purpose of advancing D&I science and building capacity for D&I research in evidence-based tobacco retail policy. More information and downloadable application materials are available here. [...]

Researchers from The Ohio State University tracked maps of 13 Ohio cities over time using racially discriminatory redlining criteria and tobacco retailer licenses by location and found that tobacco retailer density increased as redlining grades decreased, reflecting higher densities in low-income and Black neighborhoods. See the paper. [...]

A study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine shows localities can provide an extra layer to the federal Tobacco 21 law by adding components to their own T21 laws, like a comprehensive definition of tobacco, retail licensure, a graduated penalty structure, and an enforcement mechanism (e.g., compliance checks, inspections, etc.). Now, most local T21 [...]

A study in Preventing Chronic Disease found a disproportionate number of ads and price promotions for menthol cigarettes in stores located in predominantly Black neighborhoods in Los Angeles. The lowest advertised menthol pack price was also found in these neighborhoods. These findings support implementation of policies that restrict retail menthol cigarette sales. See the paper. [...]

According to ASPiRE’s Todd Combs, a ban on menthol cigarettes and all flavored cigars, now proposed by the FDA, aimed at reducing tobacco-related disease and death, could have a particularly beneficial impact on Black and younger Americans. Combs said that about 80% of Black smokers and about half of all young and LGBTQ+ smokers use [...]

A paper in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that alcohol and tobacco sales increased in all demographic categories in 2020 compared with 2019. Relative increases in tobacco sales were higher among higher-income households, younger adults, larger households, households with children under 18, and ethnic minorities. This is consistent with the demographic subgroups, who report [...]

A new paper in Health Education & Behavior by ASPiRE’s Amanda Kong and other members of the UNC team discusses several implications for pro-equity tobacco control, focused on the built environment. The paper updates the previous literature documenting national inequities in tobacco retailer density. The authors also found there may be an inequitable impact of [...]

A study from the University of Pittsburgh examined the prevalence of Pennsylvania vape shops and vape shop compliance with retail licensing before and after enactment of a 40% wholesale tax on e-cigarettes and other vaping products. Within the 18 months after the tax, the prevalence of vape shops increased linearly by 23%, indicating that the [...]

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has posted new Scientific Evidence Briefs, among them “Retailer Density, Location and Licensure” and “Flavored Tobacco Products, Including Menthol.” Each brief provides a summary of the science and evidence-based best practices or policy options on prevention and control interventions. See the briefs. [...]

At the beginning of each month, we conduct a search of the PubMed database for new peer-reviewed articles on the retail tobacco environment and policy.  Many of these articles are available for FREE. The May 2021 PubMed search results are now available. Check them out! And check back after the first Tuesday of each month [...]

At the beginning of each month, we conduct a search of the PubMed database for new peer-reviewed articles on the retail tobacco environment and policy.  Many of these articles are available for FREE. The April 2021 PubMed search results are now available. Check them out! And check back after the first Tuesday of each month [...]

ASPiRE’s Sarah Mills is the lead author of a newly published report on the efforts of the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council to pass a prohibition on the sale of menthol cigarettes in San Francisco. The article, in Tobacco Control, narrates the Council’s work advocating for a comprehensive, flavored tobacco product sales prohibition. It [...]

A report in Tobacco Control by ASPiRE’s Lisa Henriksen, Trent Johnson, and Nina Schleicher looked at vape shop closures during COVID-19 in six metro areas (Atlanta, Boston, Minneapolis, Oklahoma City, San Diego, and Seattle) using data from the Public Health Law Center. They found that many vape shops did not comply with state COVID-19 orders. [...]

Researchers at Boston College examined the associations between tobacco control policies in several Massachusetts counties and adolescent tobacco use. They found that counties with greater implementation of flavored tobacco product restrictions were associated with a decrease in the level of cigarette use, with the largest reductions among 14- and 18-year-olds. Increasing flavored tobacco product restrictions [...]

A literature review in Health & Place by researchers at The Ohio State University School of Public Health synthesized evidence on density-reduction policies. Findings indicate that prohibitions on tobacco sales in pharmacies reduced retailer density, but perhaps not equitably. Prohibiting the sale of tobacco near schools produced greater density reductions in higher-risk neighborhoods, and a [...]

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 [...]

At the beginning of each month, we conduct a search of the PubMed database for new peer-reviewed articles on the retail tobacco environment and policy.  Many of these articles are available for FREE. The March 2021 PubMed search results are now available. Check them out! And check back after the first Tuesday of each month [...]

The American Heart Association has developed Tobacco Retail Licensure, an interactive map with licensing information for all 50 states. Scroll over the map for a summary (license provisions, fees, renewal terms) and click on the state for more information. The page includes policy recommendations and additional resources, including two from ASPiRE: Tobacco Retail Policy Trends [...]

At the beginning of each month, we conduct a search of the PubMed database for new peer-reviewed articles on the retail tobacco environment and policy.  Many of these articles are available for FREE. The February 2021 PubMed search results are now available. Check them out! And check back after the first Tuesday of each month [...]

At the beginning of each month, we conduct a search of the PubMed database for new peer-reviewed articles on the retail tobacco environment and policy. Many of these articles are available for FREE. The January 2021 PubMed search results are now available. Check them out! And check back after the first Tuesday of each month [...]

At the beginning of each month, we conduct a search of the PubMed database for new peer-reviewed articles on the retail tobacco environment and policy. Many of these articles are available for FREE. The December 2020 PubMed search results are now available. Check them out! And check back after the first Tuesday of each month [...]

At the beginning of each month, we conduct a search of the PubMed database for new peer-reviewed articles on the retail tobacco environment and policy. Many of these articles are available for FREE. The November 2020 PubMed search results are now available. Check them out! And check back after the first Tuesday of each month [...]

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 [...]

At the beginning of each month, we conduct a search of the PubMed database for new peer-reviewed articles on the retail tobacco environment and policy.  Many of these articles are available for FREE. The October 2020 PubMed search results are now available. Check them out! And check back after the first Tuesday of each month [...]

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 [...]

At the beginning of each month, we conduct a search of the PubMed database for new peer-reviewed articles on the retail tobacco environment and policy.  Many of these articles are available for FREE. The September 2020 PubMed search results are now available. Check them out! And check back after the first Tuesday of each month [...]

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 [...]

At the beginning of each month, we conduct a search of the PubMed database for new peer-reviewed articles on the retail tobacco environment and policy.  Many of these articles are available for FREE. The August 2020 PubMed search results are now available. Check them out! And check back after the first Tuesday of each month [...]

At the beginning of each month, we conduct a search of the PubMed database for new peer-reviewed articles on the retail tobacco environment and policy.  Many of these articles are available for FREE. The July 2020 PubMed search results are now available. Check them out! And check back after the first Tuesday of each month [...]

At the beginning of each month, we conduct a search of the PubMed database for new peer-reviewed articles on the retail tobacco environment and policy.  Many of these articles are available for FREE. The June 2020 PubMed search results are now available. Check them out! And check back after the first Tuesday of each month [...]

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 ASPiRE Center is awarding pilot grants of $10,000 each for the 2020-2021 grant cycle to fund developmental or early stage work, with the purpose of advancing D&I science and building capacity for D&I research in evidence-based tobacco retail policy. More information and downloadable application materials are available here. [...]

Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids gathered health officials’ statements about smoking, vaping, and COVID-19. See what the FDA, CDC, WHO, and others are saying. Read the report. [...]

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 [...]

The new Tobacco Swamps Dashboard, a research product of the Tobacco Town project, lets users explore the likely impact of tobacco retailer density policies in their cities. This interactive dashboard includes maps for all 30 cities represented the ASPiRE Community Advisory Board. [...]

Smokers are at higher risk of severe illness from COVID-19, according to recent guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Smoking can compromise the immune systems of smokers, which is why they are at higher risk, according to the agency’s list of People at Higher Risk for Illness. [...]

On December 20, 2019, the federal legal minimum age of sale for tobacco products was raised to 21. On January 2, 2020, the FDA finalized a guidance that attempts to combat the epidemic of youth e-cigarette use. Both of these actions have raised many questions about what will happen next and how these policies will [...]

New FDA guidance on flavors went into effect on Feb. 6, prohibiting sales of cartridge-based e-cigarettes that are not flavored with menthol or tobacco. The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids warned that exemptions in the flavor restrictions mean the new rules “will not stop the youth e-cigarette epidemic that is addicting a generation of our kids.” Learn [...]

A new report by the U.S. Surgeon General says evidence suggests that changes in tobacco retail density and point-of-sale environments can increase cessation. Chapter 7 includes retail policy and cites past work by members of the ASPiRE team. [...]

The FTC has released 2018 data on marketing expenditures from the major cigarette and smokeless tobacco companies, finding that the tobacco companies spent $9.1 billion on advertising and promotion, or over $1 million per hour. The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids has tobacco marketing fact sheets with this new data. TFK also has new estimates of [...]

Three years after retailer licensing regulations were implemented in Philadelphia, tobacco retailer density declined by more than 20%, according to a new paper co-authored by ASPiRE CAB member Ryan Coffman of the Philadelphia Department of Public Health. The study, published in the American Journal of Public Health, concluded that licensing can reduce tobacco marketing, lessen disparities in retail [...]

A group of ASPiRE researchers, led by Shelley Golden, co-PI of ASPiRE’s Density & Disease project, have a new study out in Preventive Medicine Reports showing an association between tobacco retailer density and adult smoking prevalence in metropolitan counties. The authors suggest that jurisdictions interested in new ways to reduce smoking and smoking disparities consider strategies to reduce [...]

By the time Congress enacted a federal T21 law on December 20, a total of 19 states, the District of Columbia, and two U.S. territories had enacted T21 laws, including 13 in 2019, according to a recent CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, co-authored by ASPiRE CAB Chair Maggie Mahoney. Several state and territorial T21 [...]