Tobacco Control Policy

The decline in the number of smokers and the consequent reduction in sickness and deaths caused by tobacco is one of the nation's great public health success stories. Many factors contributed to the decline, notably governmental tobacco control policies such as increased cigarette taxes and smoke-free workplace laws. Studies published by tobacco-policy researchers influenced the adoption of these and other tobacco control public polices.

Although tobacco-policy research dates back to the 1970s, the emergence of a field of tobacco-policy research, nurtured by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, evolved primarily over the past fifteen years. This volume, the third in the acclaimed Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Series on Health Policy, presents some of the most influential research that has defined the field and has contributed to policy change.

Required reading for anyone wishing to be conversant with tobacco control policy, the book is edited by Kenneth E. Warner―dean of the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan and a leading tobacco policy researcher―who leads with an overview of the field. Warner's overview is supported by reprints of some of the field's most significant articles, written by leading scholars and practitioners.

The topics discussed are:

• Taxation and Price
• Clean Indoor Air Laws
• Advertising, Ad Bans, and Counteradvertising
• Possession, Use, and Purchase (PUP) Laws and Sales to Minors
• Cessation Policy
• Comprehensive State Laws

The book concludes with analyses of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's work to reduce smoking.

Kenneth E. Warner, Ph.D. (volume editor) is dean and Avedis Donabedian Distinguished University Professor of Public Health, at the School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan. Warner is also director, University of Michigan Tobacco Research Network.

Stephen L. Isaacs, J.D. (general series editor) is a partner in Isaacs/Jellinek, a San Francisco-based consulting firm, and president of Health Policy Associates, Inc.

James R. Knickman, Ph.D. (general series editor) served as vice president for research and evaluation at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation during the time that this book was developed and edited. He is currently the president and chief executive officer of the New York State Health Foundation.