Legal

National

Tobacco Control Legal Consortium launches FDA Tobacco Action Center
The Tobacco Control Legal Consortium’s FDA Tobacco Project is designed to mobilize the public health community to improve and support FDA regulation of tobacco. The Consortium’s website now features an FDA Tobacco Action Center, which contains resources and information for members of the public health community interested in submitting comments to FDA, as well as a link to sign up for action alerts about future opportunities to strengthen FDA regulation of tobacco. Click here to visit the website.

New tobacco control resources from the Tobacco Control Legal Consortium
The Tobacco Control Legal Consortium strives to provide helpful background information on timely tobacco policy issues through its fact sheets and Tobacco Policy Tips & Tools guides. New resources include:

• Federal Regulation of Tobacco and Its Impact on the Retail Environment. Provides an overview of the FDA’s authority to restrict the manufacturing, marketing, and sale of tobacco product and options for local governments for regulating the tobacco retail environment.
   
• Ballot Measures and Tobacco Control: Lessons Learned and Strategic Considerations. Explains what ballot measures are, how they have been used at the state and local level to pass tobacco control laws, and legal and strategic considerations for their use.
   
• Raising the Minimum Legal Sale Age for Tobacco and Related Products: Tips & Tools. Basic information for state and local policymakers, advocates, and others on policy implications related to raising the minimum legal sale age for tobacco and related products as a tobacco control strategy.
   
• Regulating Tobacco Products Based on Pack Size: Tips & Tools. Basic information on regulating tobacco products based on pack size; includes policy benefits, options, elements, legal considerations, select legislation and policies, and resources.
   
• Sunshine Laws: Requiring Reporting of Tobacco Industry Price Discounting and Promotional Allowance Payments to Retailers and Wholesalers: Tips & Tools. Basic information for state and local policymakers, advocates, and others who are considering requiring disclosure or reporting of industry price discounting and promotional allowance payments (i.e., “sunshine laws”) as a tobacco control strategy.
   
• Tobacco Behind Bars: Policy Options for the Adult Correctional Population – A Policy Options Brief. Examination of the current state of tobacco control policies in local and state prisons and jails in the U.S., the health care cost of tobacco use among the correctional population, regulatory challenges with correctional tobacco- and smoke-free policies, and policy options and opportunities.
   
• Tobacco in Adult Correctional Facilities: A Policy Overview: Fact Sheet. Overview of problems of tobacco use in U.S. adult correctional facilities, cost impact of tobacco use by the correctional population, challenges and obstacles faced by facilities in implementing tobacco-free policies, and guidelines for developing effective tobacco policies in U.S. correctional facilities. Summary of Tobacco Behind Bars policy brief.
   
• Tobacco and Juvenile Offenders: Breaking the Cycle – A Policy Options Brief. Examination of the current state of tobacco control policies in juvenile residential correctional facilities and detention centers, the prevalence of tobacco use among juvenile offenders, challenges with tobacco cessation services in the juvenile justice system, and policy options and opportunities.
   
• Tobacco in Juvenile Justice Facilities: A Policy Overview: Fact Sheet. Overview of problems of tobacco use by juvenile offenders, the challenges that the juvenile justice system faces in addressing these problems, and policy considerations. Summary of Tobacco and Juvenile Offenders policy brief.

Technical Assistance Legal Center (TALC) has a new name!
If you’ve worked with the team of tobacco control attorneys at the Technical Assistance Legal Center (TALC) in recent years, you probably know TALC as a project of Public Health Law & Policy, a nonprofit organization based in Oakland, California. TALC and PHLP are excited to announce that both TALC and Public Health Law & Policy will now be known as ChangeLab Solutions. The new name was chosen to better reflect their role as a national nonprofit creating law and policy innovation for the common good. Though they have a new name, their mission remains the same: they create innovative law and policy solutions to make communities more livable. Their team has been providing model policies, trainings, and one-on-one support for advocates and policymakers for more than a decade, and they look forward to continuing their work with the public health community in the years to come. To learn more, visit their new website.

Tobacco companies challenge $6.5B payout dies with states
Phillip Morris USA Inc., R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., and Lorillard Tobacco Co. are disputing portions of the $6.5 billion in payments they were ordered to make as a result of a 1998 settlement resolving costs of 46 states’ tobacco-related health claims. The tobacco giants were required to make annual payments to states in compensation for the health costs of tobacco-related illness. Due to the disputes, the companies are paying smaller amounts than ordered, and paying the disputed amounts in an escrow account. For example, Phillip Morris was ordered to pay $3.5 billion, and is disputing $206 million, which is being paid into an escrow account. To read more about this dispute, click here.

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International

Tobacco control efforts at risk of being undermined by trade rules
Medical and public health groups from across the United States are voicing their concerns about a threat to international tobacco control laws. Tobacco corporations are claiming that science-based regulations that limit the public’s exposure to tobacco marketing are a violation of international trade agreements, and are thereby suing governments around the world. The Trans Pacific Partnership, a major trade agreement currently in negotiation, might increase the ability of tobacco companies to use similar arguments and unravel effective tobacco control policies. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and partners submitted a testimony to the House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee, and four public health groups sent a letter to the United States Trade Representative (USTR). In both communications, health groups ask trade officials to protect the public’s health by ensuring that all tobacco products are excluded from current and future trade agreements. Click here to read more about the AAP’s testimony, or click here for details on the communication to the USTR.

Canada's largest tobacco company launches charter challenge on new, larger warning labels (Canada)
Canada’s largest tobacco manufacturer and distributor, Imperial Tobacco Canada, is challenging the federal government’s requirement to increase the size of graphic health warnings on cigarette packages to 75% of the surface, effective last September. Imperial Tobacco Canada’s argument is that the new warnings infringe on its right to freedom of commercial expression, and that increasing the size of warning labels will not lead to any significant change in public awareness. The Canadian government asserts that is that it is proud of the efforts to inform its citizens of the dangers of smoking, and it will defend its position vigorously. Click here to read this article.

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