New Fed Regulations Media Tools to Educate on "Mild" Tobacco

(From our Friends at the CDC)

CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health (OSH) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are working to educate consumers, public health partners, and the general public about new tobacco regulations that took effect July 22, 2010. These regulations prohibit the tobacco industry from distributing or introducing into the U.S. market any tobacco products for which the labeling or advertising contains the descriptors “light,” “low,” “mild,” or any similar descriptor, irrespective of the date of manufacture. However, consumers may continue to see some products with these descriptors for sale in stores after July 22 because retailers are permitted to sell off their inventory.

OSH has developed several Web-based and social media materials to get the word out about these latest FDA tobacco regulations. Following are suggestions communicated to states and partners on how they can further support this communication effort.

• Post the new “Light/Low/Mild: No such thing” graphical button on your Web site. When clicked, this button will take visitors to newconsumer-focused information entitled “No More “Light,” “Low,” or “Mild” Cigarettes.” This information provides a summary of the July 22 regulations, the public health impact, and links to key resources, including a new, expanded feature article by the same title posted on CDC’s Web site.
• Encourage others to send Health-e-Cards emphasizing the value of being tobacco-free. See the new animated Health-e-Card that reiterates there’s no such thing as a safe cigarette.

• Inform others of anew widget located on FDA’s Tobacco Products Web site. A widget is an application that enables users to embed content from another Web site onto their Web site. As content gets updated on the source site, it’s automatically updated on the user’s site. This particular widget enables readers to embed regulation information from FDA’s Tobacco Products Web site, health information from OSH’s Smoking & Tobacco Web site, and quit information from NCI’s smokefree.gov Web site.
• Follow CDCTobaccoFree on Twitter and retweeting new messages related to the July 22 FDA tobacco regulations.
• Become a fan of CDC’s Facebook page and posting new“Light/Low/Mild: No such thing” status updates on your Facebook profiles.
• Tell others about our new posting on CDC’s Everyday Health Widget (coming soon).
• View OSH’s new entry on CDC’s MySpace page.
• Follow OSH on GovLoop. GovLoop is a social networking site for the government community. It currently serves about 30,000 members, including local, state, and federal government employees and contractors. Academics and students interested in government are also welcome to join.
• Subscribe to CDC’s Smoking and Tobacco Use main feed to receive updates of new and recently changed content from CDC’s Smoking & Tobacco Use Web site on your browser or desktop.
• Continue to access CDC’s Smoking & Tobacco Use Web site for helpful resources and the latest information.

We hope you find this information to be helpful as you plan your communication campaigns. If you have any questions, please contact Patti Seikus (PSeikus@cdc.gov) in OSH’s Health Communications Branch.