Advancing racial equity and social justice for Black communities in US tobacco control policy

The AATCLC is our nation's leading public health education and advocacy organization, charged with the mission to save Black lives. In addition to community partnership, providing technical assistance, and more, they also encourage their audience to get the facts for themselves. “Advancing racial equity and social justice for Black communities in US tobacco control policy” is a paper published by the Department of Population and Public Health Sciences, University of Southern California, in Los Angeles. This paper is focused on addressing the need for an anti-racist data standard in product review processes, outlining four potential options for integrating Black-centered data standards into regulation:

1. Race-stratified outcomes in studies so that differences in harm and benefit among Black Americans are visible. 

2. Representative sampling that ensures a proportion of participants reflects their share of the U.S. population in research studies.

3. Comparison by product characteristics to reveal how specific features disproportionately impact Black communities. 

4. Transparency in marketing. Requiring firms to declare which populations are in their target, in addition to evaluating the unintended exposure of other groups.  

Abstract:

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) applies the Population Health Standard in tobacco product review processes by weighing anticipated health benefits against risks associated with a given commercial tobacco product at the population level. However, systemic racism contributes to an inequitable distribution of tobacco-related health benefits and risks between white and Black/African Americans at the population level. Therefore, Black-centered, antiracist data standards for tobacco product review processes are needed to achieve racial equity and social justice in US tobacco control policy. Regardless of whether FDA implements such data standards, non-industry tobacco scientists should prioritise producing and disseminating Black-centered data relevant to FDA’s regulatory authority. We describe how systemic racism contributes to disparities that are relevant for population-level risk assessments, then discuss four possible options for Black-centered data standards relevant to tobacco product review processes. Full paper available here!