The Geographic Health Equity Alliance (GHEA) team recently had the pleasure of training at the Annual Tennessee Tobacco Coordinator Training hosted by the TN Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Program (TUPCP) in Franklin, TN. GHEA was invited to present on the Tobacco Control Toolbox, an evidence-based framework from the CDC that covers best practices for preventing and reducing commercial tobacco use.
The tobacco control toolbox organizes what we know works best in the commercial tobacco control field. The toolbox is divided into two main sections: 1) foundational approaches, the strategies that have the most evidence backing them, and 2) complementary retail strategies, promising practices focusing on the retail environment.
Foundational Approaches
- Increasing the price of tobacco
- Implementing comprehensive smokefree policies
- Ensuring access to cessation medications and counseling
- Running hard-hitting media campaigns that are thoroughly tested and evaluated
Complementary Retail Strategies
- Product availability
- Pricing and promotion
- Advertising
- Age of sale
- Retail licensure
The GHEA team kicked off the training with an overview of the social ecological model, emphasizing that policy solutions have the greatest impact, before spending the majority of the training on the foundational approaches of the toolbox, specifically smokefree laws. Recently, TN has had several smokefree successes, making continued work in this space possible:
- In June 2022, a bill was signed that allows municipalities in TN to adopt smokefree laws in age-restricted venues such as bars and music clubs.
- Two communities, Nashville and Hendersonville, have adopted smokefree policies since June 2022.
The session then focused on strategies for tobacco-free K-12 schools as well as higher education institutions. This training was designed to teach tobacco coordinators how they can support and engage coalitions across the state in this work.