The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (FSPTCA) provided the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) with the authority to regulate the manufacturing, marketing, and distribution of tobacco products in the United States to protect the public's health, including vulnerable groups. The Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) was charged to oversee the implementation of the FSPTCA, including coordinating research activities. The CTP has identified 7 research priorities (i.e. toxicity, addiction, health effects, behavior, communications, marketing, impact analysis) and has expressed an interest in funding research on vulnerable groups. However, tobacco regulatory research questions and funded research relevant to vulnerable and disparate populations have not evolved at the pace that one might expect, despite overwhelming evidence that shows that tobacco use, exposure, and related diseases disproportionately impact poor, low educated, racial/ethnic, and other marginalize groups. Thus, there is a critical need to establish a blueprint for action that delineates the research and regulatory priorities for vulnerable and disparate groups, and the intersection of these groups. The overarching goals of the two-day meeting, A Tobacco Regulatory Agenda for Vulnerable and Disparate Groups: Developing a Blueprint for Research, Policy, and Regulatory Standards, are to engage experts in a robust process that results in a blueprint for action that defines key tobacco regulatory research and policy priorities from a disparities lens.
The specific aims are to 1) engage research and advocacy leaders in an electronic brainstorming process that identifies research questions and policies that could potentially impact vulnerable and disparate groups; 2) engage experts in a process of reviewing and critiquing research questions and discussing the types of regulatory policies that could have potential impact on vulnerable and disparate groups; and 3) develop a blueprint for action and peer-reviewed publications that will help us disseminate the meeting recommendations. Prior to the meeting, the planning committee will invite health disparities, tobacco regulatory science, and community experts to participate in electronic brainstorming that will help generate research and policy priorities. The data will be used to develop white papers that address each FDA priority area, and experts will present the data during the two-day meeting that will be held in Little Rock, Arkansas. In-person and virtual meeting participants will have the opportunity to review the priorities and subsequently rank order them during the meeting. Post-meeting activities will include the development of a blueprint for action that delineates our research and policy recommendations and peer-reviewed publications that highlight these priorities.
We expect that our blueprint for action will help the FDA and the field move forward with a tobacco regulatory research and policy framework that ultimately results in reducing disparities in vulnerable and disparate groups.
