Created as a tobacco control policy organization in 2000, the Public Health Law Center is now helping public health advocates prevent chronic disease and advance health equity with its extensive work in both tobacco control policy, and healthy eating and active living policy. New program directors Julie Ralston Aoki and Joelle Lester have recently hired a number of attorneys and policy analysts for both policy teams, which marks a new chapter in the organization’s development and capacity. 

On November 26, cigarette manufacturers will place ads in over three dozen newspapers and broadcast primetime television ads on all of the major networks. Millions of Americans will be told the truth about the harmful effects of tobacco products, and, for the first time ever, this information will be paid for by tobacco companies themselves. These court-ordered “corrective statements” announce what the industry actually knew about nicotine addiction and tobacco-caused disease for many years, despite its public denials.

On July 28, 2017, the FDA announced a comprehensive regulatory plan for tobacco products that establishes a cohesive agency-wide approach to nicotine. We applaud Commissioner Gottlieb’s commitment to working towards a world where fewer people die prematurely as a result of addictive tobacco products. We also continue to appreciate Director Zeller’s leadership at the Center for Tobacco Products and look forward to working with him and other FDA staff as this plan is implemented.

Our attorneys at the Tobacco Control Legal Consortium have recently received a deluge of questions from people throughout the U.S.

Few settings offer greater opportunity for improving our nation’s health than the child care environment. The experiences of early childhood, good and bad, lay the foundation for a lifetime. Non-parental child care settings provide a unique forum for shaping those experiences. A strategic approach, based on a holistic healthy child model, can draw on the power of law and policy to support children’s mental and emotional well-being, promote social development, mitigate Adverse Childhood Experiences, and address fundamental social determinants of health.

In an important ruling protecting the role of state and local governments as America’s public health leaders, an appellate court has upheld New York City’s groundbreaking requirement that chain restaurants warn diners about menu items containing dangerous levels of salt. Under the law, chain restaurant menus must display a salt shaker warning icon alongside any menu offering containing more sodium than is recommended for consumption in an entire day. Amazingly, an estimated twenty percent of chain restaurant menu items contain more than a full day’s worth of salt. 

After years of waiting for the graphic warning labels for cigarettes mandated by the Tobacco Control Act, the American Academy of Pediatrics, Massachusetts Chapter of American Academy of Pediatrics, American Cancer Society, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, American Heart Association, American Lung Association, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, Truth Initiative and three individual pediatricians filed a lawsuit against the FDA to force the agency to comply with

On August 17, 2006 ‒ ten years ago today ‒ Judge Gladys Kessler of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued her monumental Final Opinion in U.S. v. Philip Morris, the government’s massive case against racketeer cigarette manufacturers.