U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

Eliminate policies in states, territories, and DC that preempt local tobacco control policies — TU‑20 Data Methodology and Measurement

On this page:  About the National Data  |  Methodology  |  History

About the National Data

Data

Data Source:  State Tobacco Activities Tracking and Evaluation System (STATE), CDC/NCCDPHP

Baseline: 31 states preempted local tobacco control laws in 2018

Target: 0 States (including DC and Territories)

Numerator
Number of states, the District of Columbia, and territories that preempt local tobacco control policies on smoke-free indoor air, youth access, or licensure.
Target-setting method
Maintain consistency with national programs, regulations, policies, or laws
Target-setting method justification
The target was selected to align with the goals for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) National Tobacco Control Programs, which funds states to focus on guidance outlined in CDC's Best Practices for Comprehensive Tobacco Control Programs. This guidance used a target-setting method of elimination of preemption, which allows for 100 percent population coverage of tobacco control laws by all states and territories. This approach is in line with national and international guidance, including recommendations from the Institute of Medicine and World Health Organization.

Methodology

Methodology notes

Newly enacted state tobacco-control legislation is downloaded from Westlaw, an on-line legal database. CDC, Office on Smoking and Health (OSH) searches the Westlaw LEGIS-ALL database for all 50 states, D.C. and Territories enacted bills for the quarter using date restrictions. The bills are coded according to variables identified by CDC, OSH, which include preemption of local tobacco control policies on smoke-free indoor air, youth access, or licensure.

History

Comparable HP2020 objective
Modified, which includes core objectives that are continuing from Healthy People 2020 but underwent a change in measurement.
Changes between HP2020 and HP2030
This objective differs from the related Healthy People 2020 objectives TU-16.1, TU-16.2, TU-16.3, and TU-16.4 in that these objectives tracked the number of states and the District of Columbia that preempted local tobacco control policies related to smoke-free indoor air (TU-16.1), tobacco advertising (TU-16.2), youth access to tobacco products (TU-16.3), and local tobacco control laws on licensure (TU-16.4). This objective tracks the number of states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories that preempt any local control policies.
Revision History
Revised. 

In 2021, the baseline value was revised from 32 states in 2018 to 31 states in 2018 due to a change in how this objective is measured. At launch, this objective counted the number of states, DC, and territories that preempt local tobacco control policies on smoke-free indoor air, youth access, licensure or advertising. The objective was revised to no longer include preemption on advertising policies as the STATE System stopped tracking data on advertising preemption in 2019. The target was not revised based on the target setting method to maintain consistency with national programs, regulations, policies, or laws.