Education Program for Retailers and General PublicDevelop education program directed to retailers and the general public especially youth.Effective June 22, 2010, federal regulations were put into place limiting the sale, distribution, and marketing of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco. These regulations seek to protect our nation’s kids from becoming the next generation of Americans to die prematurely from tobacco-related disease. Retailers, seen as influential community members, are targeted through FDA’s retailer education campaign, <a href=http://www.fda.gov/TobaccoProducts/ResourcesforYou/BreakTheChain/ucm284328.htm target=”_blank”> Break the Chain of Tobacco Addiction </a>, to ensure they are aware of federal tobacco regulations and to enlist them in protecting kids from tobacco. To increase retailer awareness of the regulations, it was determined that a self mailer providing a summary of the federal regulations and ways to receive more information was our best delivery method to reach both small and large tobacco retailers. The CTP Office of Health Communication and Education worked in conjunction with the Office of Compliance and Enforcement, and the Tobacco Control Network and Synar contacts from each state and territory, to provide tobacco retailers with a valuable retailer education resource, the Break the Chain of Tobacco Addiction Retailer Education Campaign self mailer. Taking a systematic and collaborative approach, CTP was able to achieve overall success in producing a relevant, timely and useful tool with which to educate retailers on new tobacco laws and how they were applicable to retailers. Approximately 361,000 self mailers were delivered to retailers in all 50 states and the U.S. territories.
1. Launch and complete mobile text contest on regulations impacting retailers11/30/2010Completed11/30/20112. Developing and mailing out materials to retail establishments across the U.S.7/15/2011Completed1/3/2012suba. Test Pilot-mailing to 3 states3/4/2011Completed2/28/2011subb. 50% Mailed6/30/2011Completed6/30/2011subc. 100% Mailed8/30/2011Completed1/3/2012