The Next 10 Years of Federal Tobacco Regulation: A Road Map to Protect Public Health and Advance Health Equity

Abstract

After a decade of fits and starts in regulating commercial tobacco products, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has built the infrastructure needed for robust tobacco product regulation. This article lays out a vision for the FDA in its second decade of tobacco product regulation. To realize the promise of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, the FDA must move quickly to adopt high-impact tobacco product regulation, define and operationalize the public health standard in a way that advances health equity, and bring all of its authority and resources to bear to reduce health disparities. In addition, the agency must engage more productively with states to reduce and eliminate tobacco use.