Advancing Tobacco Regulatory Science to Reduce Health Disparities

The US has made decades of progress in reducing cigarette smoking, but there are notable differences in menthol cigarette smoking and use of non-cigarette tobacco products including little cigars and e-cigarettes. We propose the U54 Program Project, “UNC Center of Tobacco Regulatory Science” to address this gap. The Integrative Theme of our UNC TCORS is building the science for effective public health decision-making about flavored tobacco products. Our unified set of four Research Projects seek to understand the impact of tobacco-control and messages on tobacco use. Our goal is to further FDA and NIH efforts to protect public health through tobacco control decision making. UNC TCORS’ research will provide essential evidence to guide the FDA as it implements restrictions on menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars, develops messages, and addresses the youth vaping epidemic. We propose four Specific Aims: 1) Develop and evaluate the impact of messages to discourage tobacco product use (Projects 1, 2, 4); 2) Understand the public health impact of flavored tobacco product sales restrictions and the conditions under which they are most likely to be most effective (Projects 2 and 3); 3) Build trainees’ capacity to contribute to the field of tobacco regulatory science through training, mentorship, and pilot funding for a multidisciplinary group of pre- and post-doctoral fellows and early-stage investigators (Projects 1-4, Career Enhancement Core); 4) Inform FDA tobacco-related decision making of menthol cigarette and flavored cigar sales restrictions and messages through active dissemination of TCORS scientific findings (Projects 1-4, Administrative Core). Project 1 will develop novel digital messages to discourage young adult little cigar and cigarillo use. Project 2 will evaluate whether ending the sale of menthol cigarettes could be amplified by a quit smoking campaign to help menthol smokers quit. Project 3 will build a microsimulation model to estimate the public health impact of a federal flavored cigar sales restriction on tobacco use, mortality, and health. Project 4 will test the ability of vaping prevention video ads with promising features to reduce susceptibility to vaping among youth and young adults. The Research Projects will receive support from two Cores: Administrative and Career Enhancement (which includes Pilot Research Projects). Our multidisciplinary group of seasoned regulatory science researchers will provide actionable information to inform FDA tobacco control decision making and messaging strategies.