The latest Point of Sale Report of the Nation: Realizing the Power of States and Communities to Change the Tobacco Retail and Policy Landscape was released earlier this week. This report, the third in a series of Point of Sale Reports to the Nation since 2012, is the product of a collaboration between the Center for Public Health Systems Science (CPHSS) at Washington University in St. Louis and researchers from the Stanford Prevention Research Center and the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health as part of the Advancing Science in the Retail Environment (ASPIRE) project.

It provides updates from ASPiRE’s research on retail tobacco policy activity, tobacco retailer density, and product availability and price in states and communities across the U.S, as well as information from interviews with local and state tobacco control program leaders about policy innovations, barriers they have encountered, and growth and changes in the overall tobacco retail policy environment.

Highlights from the report include:

• Prior to the FDA finalizing its deeming rule, 90% of states had established a minimum legal sales age for e-cigarettes and 45% had banned self-service e-cigarette displays
• Over 30% of sample jurisdictions established retailer licensing beyond that required by states
• Communities in 42 states have conducted or are currently conducting retail tobacco assessments to raise awareness and inform policy, and most of these efforts have incorporated STARS, the Standardized Tobacco Assessment for Retail Settings.
• A lack of political will and tobacco industry interference remain major barriers to point of sale policy activity
• Despite barriers, retail tobacco policy activity has dramatically increased since 2012
  

  DOWNLOAD THE REPORT HERE