CDC Reports: More Than Half of All Americans Support Ending the Sale of Tobacco Products
Research Brief Released in Preventing Chronic Disease

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Megan Arendt-Manning
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WASHINGTON, DC – February 2, 2023 – A new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Office on Smoking and Health shows a majority of Americans support phasing out the sale of all tobacco products.

Read the Research Brief here>

Data from a 2021 web panel survey of adults in the US aged 18 years or older (N = 6,455) showed:

• • 62.3% of adults supported a policy prohibiting the sale of menthol cigarettes. The CDC Research Brief adds, “Approximately two-thirds of respondents who did not currently use tobacco products and more than one-third who currently used tobacco products, including menthol cigarettes, supported this policy.”
  • 57.3% of adults supported a policy prohibiting the sale of all tobacco products. The Research Brief clarifies, “More than 61% of respondents who did not currently use tobacco products and about one-fourth of respondents who currently used tobacco products supported this policy.”

“ASH welcomes this strong support from Americans who recognize the deadly and unnecessary toll tobacco products bear on our families, communities, and country,” said Laurent Huber, Executive Director of Action on Smoking and Health, a global non-profit leading the effort to advance tobacco endgame policies worldwide.

Cigarettes are the only consumer good that kills when used exactly as their manufacturer intends – they don’t require misuse or overuse to cause extensive harm and death. There is no benefit to our society for allowing the sale of tobacco products, and more jurisdictions are now acting to remove them from store shelves.

Policies to phase out tobacco sales – often called “tobacco endgame” can take several forms, including:

• • A reduction in nicotine in cigarettes to non-addictive levels, as New Zealand is doing and the US FDA is exploring.
  • Prohibiting the sale of tobacco to anyone born after a specific date, effectively raising the age to purchase tobacco products by one year every year, as New Zealand and Brookline, MA have done (often called Tobacco or Smoke Free Generation).
  • Phase out tobacco retail licenses.
  • Ban filters in cigarettes, as ASH and partners are working to do through the UN Plastic Pollution Treaty being negotiated this year.

“Political will is often what delays tobacco endgame policies from being implemented,” said Laurent Huber of ASH. “We have the science on our side and now the CDC has demonstrated that public support is strong as well.”

ASH encourages more jurisdictions to follow the lead of Beverly Hills and Manhattan Beach, CA in prioritizing the health of their citizens by phasing out the sale of tobacco products.

ACTION ON SMOKING AND HEALTH
Founded in 1967, Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) is America’s oldest anti-tobacco organization, dedicated to a world with ZERO tobacco deaths. Because tobacco is the leading cause of preventable death worldwide, ASH supports bold solutions proportionate to the magnitude of the problem. ash.org