Responsible Tobacco Retailing – Making the fight local

Audience: Local public health officials 

Key Points:

The FDA Tobacco Control Act gives local municipalities the power to regulate the time, place and manner of how tobacco products are sold.  A handful of municipalities have used this authority to ban tobacco sales in certain venues and alter the manner of how tobacco products are sold.  In many cases, the tobacco industry has challenged the authority of localities to define the way tobacco products are sold and marketed. 

Educational Experience:

This presentation describes the experience of the City Buffalo, New York that attempted to regulate tobacco product marketing in approximately 400 retail outlets by crafting a comprehensive set of regulations that would define responsible tobacco product retailing.  This proposed law attempted to limit the venues where tobacco products could be sold, ban in-store tobacco displays, require health warning signage, and prevent the sale of untaxed contraband tobacco products.  The proposed law was known as the Responsible Tobacco Retailing Act (RTRA) and included an innovative manufacturer’s user fee levied on brands as a way to fund an enforcement program to ensure compliance with the law.  The RTRA was introduced in 2010 and quickly gained the support of elected official who sought to clean up retail establishments that littered many of the poor communities within the city. 

Benefits:

This presentation describes the proposed legislation and the opposition that was encountered from the tobacco industry and their paid lobbyists to keep this RTRA from become a reality.