The FDA recently issued marketing denial orders on thousands of tobacco products, but applications for the biggest e-cigarette brands are still under review. The FDA was ordered by a federal court to take action by September 9th on applications for approval of tobacco products that were [More]
In this quick primer of an episode, we talk about nicotine pouches like “Zyn” and other so-called “modern” oral nicotine products, how they are being marketed and sold in the retail environment, and options for regulating this small but rapidly growing product segment with concerns about [More]
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has announced the awardees for more than $300 million in funding to support community health worker (CHW) services. CHWs are frontline public health workers who are trusted members of the community they serve and support populations at high [More]
For years, the tobacco industry has come under fire for targeting their marketing to specific groups, such as youth and people of color. We don’t often talk enough about members of the LGBTQ+ community being targeted by the tobacco and alcohol industries. These industry strategies contribute [More]
The overall racial and ethnic diversity of the country has increased since 2010, and the number of people who identify as multiracial increased significantly. We use census data in our data collection and mapping tools to help states identify disparities in tobacco and alcohol retailer density [More]
A new edition of the Thrifty Food Plan adds a significant increase to SNAP benefits for low-income families. This is the first time in decades that the focus was not on maintaining costs but on creating a healthy, practical diet with food choices that are more [More]
Update August 26: The U.S. Supreme Court has blocked the recent order extending the federal eviction moratorium The CDC issued a new eviction moratorium order to prevent further spread of COVID-19. The looming evictions for people who have not been able to pay rent are a [More]
For people with disabilities, barriers can make it difficult to function in day to day life. We recognize that being more inclusive is strongly tied to our stance on equity, diversity and inclusion. Over the past year we have been assessing our software tools and websites [More]
As a nonprofit organization that was born out of the Gillings School of Public Health at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, our team has strong Tar Heel roots. Our co-founders Drs. Allison Myers and Kurt Ribisl brought their vision for supporting tobacco point of [More]
Dear Senator Durbin and Senator Wyden: We are writing to express our strong support for S. 1314, the Tobacco Tax Equity Act of 2021, which would increase the federal excise tax on cigarettes and set federal tax rates for other tobacco products at an equivalent level. [More]
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health (DHHS OMH) have launched a new Minority Health Social Vulnerability Index (SVI). The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted how the social determinants of health directly impact the health [More]
We’re thrilled to announce a new partnership with the New Jersey Prevention Network. Counter Tools will be providing training and technical assistance for tobacco prevention programs on point-of-sale tobacco work - sharing knowledge on tobacco industry tactics, milestones in public health prevention and control efforts, policy [More]
We hosted a webinar in our "Healthy POS Webinar Series" on Thursday, June 17 at 11am EST. Our guest speaker was Dr. Pamela Trangenstein, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Health Behavior, UNC-Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health; and a leading alcohol researcher. The advertising [More]
Our latest podcast episode describes the “endgame” for commercial tobacco control toward a tobacco-free future. Learn about possible strategies and examples of places that are already implementing endgame policies. Endgame strategies have been defined as “initiatives designed to change/eliminate permanently the structural, political, and social dynamics [More]
New reports from the Federal Trade Commission show that in 2019 the tobacco industry spent nearly $6.6 billion marketing and promoting cigarettes and smokeless tobacco at the point of sale. Figures from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Reports on Cigarettes and Smokeless Tobacco Sales and Marketing [More]
This week, Counter Tools along with 96 other organizations submitted a report to the Committee on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD), an international human rights body made up of independent experts responsible for monitoring the implementation of the International Convention of the [More]
As Congress works to draft the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies (Labor-HHS) appropriations legislation for FY 2022, the 191 undersigned organizations request that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (NCCDPHP) be [More]
April is National Minority Health Month and the theme this year from the National Institute of Minority Health (NIMH) is Vaccine Ready. We know that COVID-19 affects communities of color disproportionately, and vaccination is an important tool to protect vulnerable communities by preventing hospitalization and death. [More]
The Geographic Health Equity Alliance and Counter Tools are excited to announce the second annual Geographic Surveillance Learning Collaborative for National Comprehensive Cancer Control and National Tobacco Control Programs. In this learning collaborative, teams from six participating states will each work on a project designed to build competence in the areas of mapping policies (i.e., legal [More]
In this episode, we talk with Natasha Phelps, a Lead Senior Staff Attorney at the Public Health Law Center, about the recent statement on “Decriminalizing Commercial Tobacco: Addressing Systemic Racism in the Enforcement of Commercial Tobacco Control” that was released last year by a consortium of [More]
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Photo credit Sarah Daniels/Innovate Carolina.
