Regulatory science focuses on ensuring that scientifically valid techniques, tools, and models are available to evaluate products and, subsequently, to inform regulatory actions that promote optimal health outcomes (Hamburg, 2010; Norman, 2012).
With the passage of the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (Tobacco Control Act), the FDA acquired the authority to regulate the manufacturing, marketing, and distribution of tobacco products in order to protect public health. Within the framework of the Tobacco Control Act, the NIH and FDA formed a partnership to establish a comprehensive research agenda in tobacco regulatory science. Since 2009 the FDA has regulated the manufacturing, distribution, and marketing of tobacco products. Some of the FDA’s regulatory research priorities include:
- The impact of marketing and communications on tobacco use behavior
- Perceptions, knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs regarding tobacco products
- Toxicity, oncogenicity, and other health risks of tobacco products
- Varying nicotine levels and other constituents’ effects on initiation, dependence, and quitting
- The effect of tobacco product characteristics on addiction and abuse liability across populations
Click the links below to learn more about current tobacco regulatory research at HPRC:
Dr. Amy Cohn examines the effects of menthol flavored tobacco products and low nicotine cigarettes on addiction outcomes.
Dr. Lurdes Queimado examines the health effects of traditional and emerging tobacco products using a broad combination of biological tools, including a novel DNA damage assay (q-PADDA) developed in her laboratory.
Dr. Evan Floyd examines product design characteristics and standards.