An ASPiRE team that included Paul Delamater, Sarah Halvorson-Fried, Amanda Kong, and Kurt Ribisl examined the clustering of tobacco retailers near public schools. They found that tobacco retailers were closer to schools in rural areas, cities, and towns, and were more dense around schools in rural areas, cities, and suburbs compared to random locations. “This study provides compelling evidence that tobacco retailers cluster near U.S. public schools and that there are racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic inequities in clustering, even when accounting for overall retail location patterns,” the authors concluded. “Given that public schools tend to reflect neighborhood demographics, policies to limit tobacco retailers near schools may reduce both school-based and neighborhood-based inequities.”

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