Rutgers will use $18 million grant to examine impacts of tobacco marketing on public health

Rutgers has received a five-year grant from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Institutes of Health for $18 million to examine the effects of tobacco marketing on public health, according to Rutgers Today. 

The grant will be shared with the University of Pennsylvania. 

The Tobacco Center of Regulatory Science (TCORS) at the Rutgers School of Public Health will focus on researching and examining the effects of advertising, packaging and labeling on prescriptions, use and exposure of cigarettes and cigarillos, classified as combustible tobacco products, according to Rutgers Today. 

The center will focus on four primary projects and four cores, which will provide essential training and career enhancement opportunities. These priorities include: 

An assessment of smoking behaviors, subjective responses and biological exposure to look at the effect of cigarette packaging on smoking low nicotine content cigarettes. 

An analysis of low nicotine cigarette advertising and novel tobacco product marketing with a focus on learning how the public is misinformed about health risks. 

An analysis of how cigarillo packaging with many colors, designs, descriptors and warning labels influence opinion and use. 

Looking at the effect of cigarette descriptors that can trick the user about the health harms of tobacco products. 

Olivia Wackowski, an assistant professor of Health Education and Behavioral Science Center for Tobacco Studies, and Jane Lewis, an associate Professor of Health Education and Behavioral Science, will also work with Delnevo on the research. 

The Penn-Rutgers TCORS will also collaborate with researchers at other institutions including Columbia University, Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, Georgetown University Medical Center, University of Nevada-Reno and University of Vermont, according to Rutgers Today. 

“The greatest contributor to tobacco-caused disease is from cigarettes and other combustible products,” said Cristine Delnevo, director of the Center for Tobacco Studies at the Rutgers School of Public Health. “Tobacco regulatory science can inform the FDA on future steps that can reduce harm from the most dangerous tobacco products and have the greatest potential to improve public health.”