Tobacco Regulation and Products

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In 2009, we won a hard-fought campaign that led to Congress passing a law granting the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) the authority to regulate all tobacco products, including cigarettes, e-cigarettes, cigars and hookah. Yet, it took the FDA seven years to begin their oversight of many of these products with much more work left to be done. 

Recent spikes in the use of e-cigarettes makes clear that more must be done to regulate tobacco products and the industry's deceptive marketing practices.  We are working to ensure the government fully leverages the regulatory power it now possesses to protect children and adults. 

Tobacco use costs our nation nearly $300 billion in health care and productivity losses each year.

Latest Updates

March 11, 2023
New York

BUFFALO, NY –MARCH 11, 2023 – As budget discussions among state legislators pick up speed at the Capitol, Erie County religious, health and community leaders are set to rally alongside cancer patients and survivors on Monday, March 13. Following the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network’s (ACS CAN) release of

March 10, 2023
New York

BUFFALO, NY—MARCH 8, 2023— Utilizing data from the New York State Cancer Registry, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) released data showing the devastating impact that cancers linked to tobacco have on New Yorkers, specifically those living in Erie County: Between 2015-2019, 46,417 people on average

February 7, 2023
National

The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) applauds the president’s continued focus and dedication to achieving the goal of the Cancer Moonshot, to end cancer as we know it. President Biden outlined several strategies in the State of the Union to reduce the cancer burden nationwide.

February 7, 2023
South Carolina

COLUMBIA, SC – February 7, 2022 – At the pressure of Big Tobacco and its allies, lawmakers are once again moving quickly with a proposal that would endanger the health of our children by taking away the freedom of cities and counties to pass policies stronger than the state law

Tobacco Regulation and Products Resources

For decades, tobacco companies have used flavors, in cigarettes, cigars, e-cigarettes, hookah, to lure and target youth and young people and expose them to a lifetime of nicotine addiction, disease, and premature death. Flavors, especially menthol, are known to improve the ease and use of a product by masking the tobacco’s harsh effects. ACS CAN urges lawmakers to protect public health, not Big Tobacco’s profits, by passing comprehensive tobacco control policies that apply to all tobacco products.

Big tobacco has a history of prioritizing corporate profits over people and communities burdened by tobacco-related illness and death. For decades, the tobacco industry has lied to specific communities and the public at large saying their products are not addictive, harmful or deadly. Tobacco manufacturers continue to create and flood the market with newly designed products they market as being less harmful and alternatives to quitting – a tactic that is not new.

While overall smoking rates have declined in recent years, smoking rates remain higher among specific populations, including people with limited incomes. These differences are in large part due to the tobacco industry’s targeted marketing through advertising, price discounting and other strategies. Every year the tobacco industry spends $9.1 billion in the United States marketing their deadly and addictive products.