EFFECT OF TOBACCO AT THE STATE LEVEL

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Tobacco is the leading preventable cause of death. This application seeks funding to continue and extend our research on how the tobacco industry and tobacco control advocates seek to influence state and local policy making with the overall goal of developing knowledge that will lead to more effective tobacco control policies, taking into account changes that have taken place in the last two years, such as the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) that ended state tobacco litigation. The specific aims are: (1) Document and analyze the evolution of policy making with regard to tobacco control programs in a variety of states, including some with "mature" tobacco control programs that were created before the recent round of litigation as well as "new" states with tobacco control programs funded with money from the MSA. (2) Identify and describe new tobacco industry strategies for using surrogates to oppose state and local tobacco control efforts, beginning with the hospitality industry and claims that smoke free workplace laws hurt the hospitality business. (3) Understand the increasing importance of tobacco marketing to 18-24 year olds (as opposed to 12-17 year olds) for recruitment and retention of new smokers, with particular emphasis on bars as marketing venues. (4) Conduct a comparative analysis of the effectiveness of different tobacco control strategies. While the tobacco industry and its allies have attempted to present legitimate public health activities as unwarranted government intrusion into personal freedom, the underlying goal has been to prevent or delay the implementation of public policies to reduce cancer and heart disease. As with any disease, it is important to understand the vector of the disease in order to develop and implement effective control strategies. In the case of preventing lung and other cancer, as well as heart disease, it is necessary to understand the activities of the tobacco industry. This research will use case study and other methodologies to further this understanding.