Celebrating 10 Years of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act
President Barack Obama, surrounded by members of Congress, and others, signs the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act in 2009. (Edmonds/AP) via nydailynews.com Tomorrow, June 22, 2019, marks the 10th anniversary of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act going into effect. [More]
Letter from Public Health Groups on Senate T21 Bills
Excerpt: We are writing to express our strong support for raising the legal age for sale of tobacco products to 21 and to share our views on two bipartisan bills recently introduced in the Senate. We commend Senators Brian Schatz (D-HI), Todd Young (R-IN), Dick Durbin (D-IL), [More]
Counter Tobacco Podcast: An Interview with Katherine Ungar on Tobacco 21 (Episode 10)
In the latest episode of the Counter Tobacco Podcast, we interview Katherine Ungar, Executive Director of the Preventing Tobacco Addiction Foundation. Learn about how interest in policies raising the minimum legal sales age to 21 (or "Tobacco 21" policies) has grown in the US, what makes a [More]
Counter Tools featured in Innovate Carolina’s newsletter!
We're thrilled to be featured in Innovate Carolina's weekly newsletter, IN the Know! IN the Know shares interesting and inspiring news and updates about innovative and entrepreneurial activity at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which is where we were founded seven years ago.
Letter from Public Health Groups on House T21 Bills
Excerpt: We are writing to express our strong support for the Tobacco to 21 Act (H.R. 2411) and the Reversing the Youth Tobacco Epidemic Act (H.R. 2339), both of which would raise the legal age for sale of tobacco products to 21. Raising the tobacco sale age [More]
Letter of Support for the Reversing the Youth Tobacco Epidemic Act of 2020
Excerpt: We are writing to express our strong support for H.R. 2339, the Reversing the Youth Tobacco Epidemic Act of 2019. Your legislation will address the current youth e-cigarette epidemic that is threatening to undermine the progress that has been made in reducing youth cigarette use and [More]
We Can’t Wait: Governmental Action Can Do More than Voluntary Corporate Action
In a statement released on March 4, 2019, the FDA announced new actions taken by the agency to warn Walgreens and 15 other corporate-owned chains and franchise stores, including Walmart, with violation rates greater than 15%. Since then, we have seen several chains announce actions they [More]
Comments of Public Health Groups on FDA Draft Guidance Modifying Compliance Policy for Certain Deemed Tobacco Products
Excerpt: The undersigned organizations submit these comments in the above referenced Docket on the Draft Guidance for Industry on the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) proposed Modifications to its Compliance Policy for Certain Deemed Products, issued in March 2019 (Draft Guidance). The Draft Guidance can be a [More]
[UPDATED!] See you at NCTOH!
Counter Tools will be at the National Conference on Tobacco or Health (NCTOH) August 27th to 29th in Minneapolis, MN---will you? During the conference, we invite you to stop by our exhibitor booth (#111) to grab some promotional materials and talk further with us about our products [More]
House Agricultural Subcommittee & FDA Letter From Public Health Groups
Excerpt: As your Subcommittee moves forward with the FY 2020 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill, we urge you to approve the authorized level of user fees for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to oversee tobacco products. These user fees [More]
House CDC OSH Letter from Public Health Groups
Excerpt: As your Subcommittee moves forward with the FY 2020 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill, we urge you to increase funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Office on Smoking and Health (OSH) by $100 million, for a [More]
My Place: That’s So ‘South of Shaw’
"My Place" is a series of blog posts authored by the Counter Tools team that aims to shed light on the impact place has had on each of our lives. In this My Place post, we hear from Executive Director Nina Baltierra. I grew up in Fresno, [More]
Response to CDC Request for Information on Advancing Tobacco Control Practices
February 11, 2019 Randi Frank Office on Smoking and Health Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4770 Buford Highway, Mail Stop S107-7 Atlanta, GA 30341 Re: Request for Information on Advancing Tobacco Control Practices to Prevent Initiation of Tobacco Use Among Youth and Young Adults, Eliminate Exposure [More]
We’re hiring!
Counter Tools invites applications for a Project Director starting this March or April. Our Project Directors provide timely and high quality project management, training, and technical assistance to our client-partners working to advance place-based public health. Their national or multi-regional perspective and expertise strengthens Counter Tools’ position [More]
Happy Year of Cessation
As with all new years, there has been a lot of talk about resolutions. Maybe you’ve set some goals for yourself or seen the evidence of resolution motivation in the form of lines for the treadmills at the gym or friends taking rain-checks on drinks because of [More]
Big Data For Big Good
In this post, Anna Davidson, our Director of Product & Technology, reflects on Big Data and the Internet of Things, and how we can use them for good. While attending a keynote at a recent geospatial health and human services conference, I asked the speaker, 1) what [More]
Counter Tools Statement on Proposed Flavored Tobacco Ban from FDA
On November 15, 2018, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, M.D. proposed new steps to protect youth by preventing access to flavored tobacco products and banning menthol in cigarettes. You can read the policy framework in detail in his announcement here. Below, we summarize and weigh-in on each step, [More]
Getting to Know Your Place Using Data
Happy Thanksgiving! In this post, Project Director Marielle Matthews is ravenous for Census data. I’ve always been captivated by Census data. Attempting to count every person everywhere in the United States and Puerto Rico?! That’s daunting. Even though carrying out such a massive data collection project is [More]
Comments of Public Health Groups on US-Japan Free Trade Agreement
Excerpt: We are pleased to submit these comments in the above-designated docket. Our organizations are nonprofit public health and medical organizations which are actively engaged in efforts to eliminate the disease and death caused by the use of tobacco products in the United States and throughout the [More]
Counter Tobacco Podcast: An Interview with Dr. Melissa Little on POS Tobacco and the Military
As a follow-up to our webinar on the Intersection of POS Tobacco Use and the Military, we had the privilege of talking to Dr. Melissa Little, Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of Virginia. Dr. Little’s work centers around military populations [More]
