Building Healthy Communities Through the Retail Environment
The retail environment provides many of the products that result in unhealthy behaviors such as tobacco use, poor nutrition, and excessive alcohol use. How can we create a retail environment where the healthy choice is the [...]
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 [...]
Improving Social Determinants of Health Act reintroduced
The Improving Social Determinants of Health Act was first introduced in July 2020. The bill was reintroduced by Rep. Nanette Barragán (CA-44) on January 21, 2021. This legislation would empower public health departments and community organizations [...]
Upcoming webinar: Equitable enforcement in commercial tobacco control
Counter Tools is partnering with The Center for Black Health & Equity and ChangeLab Solutions to discuss how local and state partners can advance equitable enforcement practices in commercial tobacco control. Join us on Tuesday, February [...]
Counter Tobacco Podcast: The Tobacco Control Vaccine Booster
In this episode, we talk with Dr. Amanda Kong, one of the authors of a recent paper “Boosting the Tobacco Control Vaccine: recognizing the role of the retail environment in addressing tobacco use and disparities.” We [...]
Meet our staff: Beth Turner, Business Manager
Beth Turner is Business Manager at Counter Tools. Beth has worked in the nonprofit sector for years and is passionate about health equity and volunteering in her community. Learn more about Beth’s background in her staff [...]
Reflecting on health equity and our work in 2020
2020 was a challenging year and inspired us to rethink our understanding of inequities, strive to learn more, and be better. In this post we look back at a year focused on health equity and celebrate [...]
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, [...]
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 [...]
Meet our staff: Mollie Mayfield, Senior Project Director and Managing Editor, CounterTobacco.org
Mollie Mayfield is Senior Project Director and Managing Editor of CounterTobacco.org at Counter Tools. She loves being inspired by people that work to improve the health of their communities and introducing folks to point-of-sale tobacco control [...]
Considering social vulnerability and health equity in COVID-19 vaccine allocation
Health equity is being considered in discussions of vaccine allocation for perhaps the first time in our history. Official recommendations for vaccine distribution may include the CDC’s Social Vulnerability Index as a way of incorporating the [...]
Tobacco Retailer Licensing Considerations for Rural Communities
In the United States, rates of tobacco use are higher in rural than urban populations, yet rural communities often lack the tobacco control policy coverage present in more urban areas. While there are several reasons why [...]
Strategies to Create Healthier Food Retail Environments
Many neighborhoods lack access to traditional supermarkets and other sources of fresh, healthy food, especially at an affordable price. Making healthy choices easier in the retail environment has the potential to make a significant impact on [...]
Letter to FDA on Prohibiting Menthol Cigarettes
The undersigned public health and medical organizations write to urge the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to grant the pending Citizen Petition referenced above and commence the requested rulemaking to prohibit menthol as a characterizing flavor [...]
Meet our staff: Maria Julian, Executive Director
Maria Julian is the Executive Director at Counter Tools. She loves working to bring positive change to critical issues in place-based public health. Learn more about Maria's background and what inspires her in her staff profile [...]
Counter Tools releases stance on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
Counter Tools has released a stance that defines how we approach equity, diversity, and inclusion with our current partners and clients and those we have the opportunity to work with in the future. Included is our [...]
