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 easy choice? Some important strategies involve addressing the availability, promotion and [More]
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 [More]
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 to act as chief health strategists in their communities and lead [More]
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 9, at 2:00 pm ET / 11:00 am PT to learn [More]
Counter Tobacco Podcast: The Tobacco Control Vaccine Booster (Episode 23)
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 discuss how key retail strategies, including addressing product availability, pricing and [More]
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 profile below. Tell us a little bit about your background before [More]
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 new partnerships. 2020 was an opportunity for many of us to [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 [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 [More]
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 work. Learn more about Mollie’s background and passion for policy work [More]
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 disproportionate impacts of COVID-19 on certain communities into determination of priority [More]
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 policy adoption may be more challenging in rural areas, some rural [More]
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 the health of communities. Here are a few recommended strategies to [More]
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 in cigarettes. The menthol Citizen Petition was filed over seven years [More]
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 below. Tell us a little bit about your background before you [More]
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 overall vision and key ways we will continue to address equity, [More]
Counter Tobacco Podcast: Equity in Point-of-Sale Tobacco Control (Episode 22)
This episode is all about working towards health equity with point-of-sale tobacco control. We discuss some of the drivers behind inequities in tobacco use and related morbidities and mortality, and how we can use a pro-equity approach to plan, implement, and enforce policies that allow all individuals [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 [More]
Inspiration from a SOPHE webinar on equity and anti-racism in public health
Systemic inequities such as racism impact individuals across the social determinants of health and create unequal opportunities for individuals to stay healthy. In an engaging webinar from SOPHE, the panelists shared insights on racism in the context of both public health and society at large, and offered [More]
Reflecting on Indigenous Peoples’ Day and how to become a better ally
This week marked Indigenous Peoples’ Day, which recognizes Native Americans as the first inhabitants of the Americas. In this tumultuous year as we have renewed our focus on inequities and health disparities, we must be sure to reflect and learn about the experiences of Native Americans and [More]
