Success Story: Addressing and Improving the Landscape of Food and Alcohol Products in Wisconsin
We have a new success story about our partner in Wisconsin that serves as a good example of the importance of collecting data about the retail environment, having cross-sector collaboration in efforts, and increasing access to healthy products for the betterment of population health. Counter Tools has partnered with the Wisconsin Department of Health Services [More]
Success Story: Using Local Data to Pass Policies for Tobacco Prevention in Golden Valley, Minnesota
We have a new success story about one of our partners that serves as a great example of a local area passing strong tobacco prevention policies. In 2019, the city of Golden Valley in Hennepin County, Minnesota passed a number of comprehensive tobacco prevention policies, and in June 2020, they passed additional regulations to restrict [More]
UNC and PHLC release Policy Playbook For E-cigarettes
University of North Carolina's Vaping Prevention Resource and Public Health Law Center recently released the Policy Playbook for E-cigarettes. The Playbook provides state and local stakeholders with a framework of policies and practices to pursue, guidelines on policy implementation, case studies, and examples. As a supplement, Public Health Law Center is hosting a webinar this [More]
Tobacco Control Enforcement for Racial Equity – A joint statement from public health organizations
This fall, Counter Tools joined a working group of public health advocates to develop a collective statement on equitable tobacco control enforcement. More than 40 public health organizations endorsed and released the statement this month, titled Tobacco Control Enforcement for Racial Equity: Decriminalizing Commercial Tobacco – Addressing Systemic Racism in the Enforcement of Commercial Tobacco [More]
Nebraska passes T21 policy and adds electronic smoking devices to their Clean Indoor Air Act
Counter Tools is thrilled to congratulate Nebraska, one of our partnering states, on two exciting policy victories! LB1064 This bill makes Nebraska the 33rd state to pass statewide T21 legislation. By raising the minimum legal sale age (MLSA) to 21, the state now aligns with the federal law, which helps to reduce consumer and retailer [More]
We’re excited to partner with Oregon!
We are excited to begin a new partnership with the Oregon Health Authority (OHA)! Counter Tools will be providing training and technical assistance for tobacco prevention programs to strengthen their capacity to advance evidence-based tobacco prevention policy goals. We will work with community program staff from local public health authorities, tribes, and regional health equity [More]
Research Into Action Webinar: Tobacco Minimum Floor Price Laws and Adult Smoking Prevalence
In this webinar on July 15, 2020 Dr. Shelley Golden and Derek Carr, JD discussed the effects of minimum floor price laws on tobacco use among adults. Learn how coalitions can add minimum floor price laws to their policy change arsenal. This webinar is over, but you can view the recording below. You can find [More]
Success Story: Florida’s Alachua County – Leading the Way on Tobacco Retailer Licensing, Tobacco 21, and Restrictions Near Schools
Counter Tools has partnered with Florida Department of Health’s Bureau of Tobacco-Free Florida since 2013 to survey the retail environment and spread awareness around healthy retail, and in more recent years the work has shifted focus to passing policies. In January 2019, Alachua County implemented a local tobacco retailer licensing policy, raised the minimum legal [More]
Success Story: Youth Empowerment and Advocacy – Reality Check’s Fight Against the Tobacco Industry
Counter Tools has partnered with Reality Check since 2015 to conduct training sessions for educating youth on tobacco and do advocacy work through rallying at the annual Altria shareholder’s meeting. Reality Check is a youth-led, adult-supported program based out of New York. Under Reality Check, youth have the opportunity to become leaders in their communities [More]
Announcing the Geographic Surveillance Learning Collaborative
The Geographic Health Equity Alliance, a CADCA initiative, and Counter Tools are excited to announce the inaugural Geographic Surveillance Learning Collaborative for National Tobacco Control and Comprehensive Cancer Control Programs. Collaborative Learning Objectives: Develop an understanding of how participating states across the country develop and maintain their statewide geographic surveillance systems Understand how participating states use geographic surveillance in [More]
Webinar with CADCA – Research Into Action: Why Point of Sale Matters
We're joining CADCA's Research Into Action webinar series this week on Why Point of Sale Matters. Elizabeth Gerndt, Project Director at Counter Tools, will provide evidence on how the retail environment and point of sale play a huge role in the health of our communities, looking specifically at the impact of point of sale on [More]
Success Story: Assessing 100% of Tobacco Retailers – Virginia’s Ground Truthing Project
We're starting a new series on our blog to share Success Stories. Our partners have achieved great successes in public health. We recognize their hard work and leadership in creating healthier communities. We hope these stories inspire your work around place-based public health. Our first success story is about our work with the Virginia Department [More]
We’re excited to work with California!
We’re excited to announce a new partnership with California’s Department of Justice. We’ll be working with them to integrate licensing and enforcement data from multiple agencies as part of their ongoing efforts to ensure tobacco control in the retail environment. Our work will enable state and local agencies to be more efficient, keep the public [More]
Healthy POS Webinar Series: Flavored Tobacco Policies and Evaluation – A Massachusetts Case Study
The visibility and accessibility of flavored tobacco products can lead to increased tobacco use initiation and continued use because of their appeal, especially among youth. The state of Massachusetts has set an example for implementing flavored tobacco product sales restrictions at the state and local-level to ameliorate these effects. During this webinar, flavor-related policy implementation [More]
A Study With Truth Initiative Shows That Youth Are Being Targeted With Tobacco Marketing
We partnered with Truth Initiative in 2018 to study tobacco marketing in two cities in the Tobacco Nation. A new form called fSTARS was developed to collect data focusing on menthol and other flavored tobacco products. The data showed that tobacco prices were cheaper in neighborhoods that had more youth, and almost every tobacco retailer [More]
Counter Tools’ partner Massachusetts shows flavor bans can cut youth tobacco use
Counter Tools' partner Massachusetts has had recent successes passing policies that restrict flavored tobacco to adult-only establishments. In 2016 the cities of Boston and Lowell both passed flavor policies and evaluations of the policies showed significant decline in youth access to flavored tobacco products. Lowell's study also included youth surveys that assessed youth perceptions related [More]
Counter Tools’ Partner Indiana Featured in CDC’s Programs in Action
Counter Tools' longtime partner, the Indiana State Department of Health’s tobacco control program, is featured in Programs in Action by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Office on Smoking and Health (CDC OSH). The tobacco control program takes a comprehensive approach to the issue by looking at smoke-free policy coverage, changing public perceptions and increasing [More]
Policy Success: Excelsior, MN votes to raise tobacco sales age to 21
Excelsior became the latest city in Minnesota to raise the tobacco and e-cigarette sales age to 21. The city passed the ordinance on Monday, along with banning the sale of such products within 500 feet of elementary, middle/junior high, and high schools. We were thrilled to have the opportunity to assist the folks in Excelsior [More]
Counter Tools Training Youth to Speak Out at Altria’s Shareholder Meeting
Message to Shareholders: We’ve Seen Enough Tobacco Marketing Despite the 80-degree forecast for Richmond, VA on Thursday, May 17, a cold front will pass through downtown just in time for the Altria Group shareholders annual meeting. The icy blast, expected to storm through the area around the Richmond Convention Center, will include 60 youth from [More]
Moulton, Milton Community Youth Council want Big Tobacco to fail
We're so proud of the work Vermont's Milton Community Youth Coalition, Inc. is doing! They're using our software to map tobacco retailers' proximity to public parks and schools, and are sharing their findings with the community to fight youth exposure to tobacco use and advertising. "You look at that data you’re like WTF,” [Executive Director] [More]
