The California Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program featured the Policy Research Center and two other tobacco policy centers in California on their website. Our Center works with communities to advocate for tobacco free indoor and outdoor environments by gathering data about commercial tobacco pollution to show policy makers throughout California. Together, all three centers work to reduce the burden of tobacco-related disease and death for California’s.

By: Wendee Nicole Holtcamp
July 2024

In line with a major Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program (TRDRP) goal to support research that informs public policy for the benefit of California’s diverse populations, we are pleased to announce the establishment of three TRDRP-funded tobacco policy research centers (TPRCs) across the state: the Nicotine and Cannabis Policy Center at UC Merced, the Policy Research Center for Tobacco and the Environment at San Diego State University (SDSU), and the Tobacco Cessation Policy Research Center at UC Davis.

All three multi-disciplinary, collaborative policy research centers work in partnership with advocates, community members, policymakers, and other key stakeholders. The centers were established so researchers can more nimbly respond to critical policy research questions that can inform pending legislation and to evaluate the impact of existing legislation around commercial tobacco product use and marketing. 

“In general, it takes one to two years to receive funding from TRDRP for a tobacco-related disease research project,” explains Dr. Tracy Richmond McKnight, TRDRP Director. “That’s too long to generate research for policy that’s in discussion ‘right now.’ Policy research needs to be more rapid.”

Modeling the centers on the successful California HIV/ AIDS Research Program, TRDRP sought to establish centers with unique focal areas, to be led by principal investigators (PIs) with tobacco control research expertise and who had existing connections to their communities. Centers are also required to have a policy strategist on the research team.

“Our idea was to have two or three centers so that when policy questions come up, they can be addressed in a timely fashion by these centers,” adds Dr. McKnight, “The TPRCs also generate policy questions that are important to their local community.” All centers include four cores to maximize their efficiency and effectiveness.

• Rapid Response Project Support and Implementation: To quickly inform time-sensitive policy issues, each center must be able to support rapid response research conducted in collaboration with community partners.
• Training, Capacity Building, and TPRC Pilots: Providing training for emerging tobacco researchers is essential for establishing and sustaining the pipeline for a diverse, well-trained scientific workforce. Centers are encouraged to train, mentor, and provide funds and research opportunities to emerging researchers, postdoctoral fellows, undergraduate, and graduate students.
• Community Input and Dissemination: Each center must actively engage one or more community partners, including advocacy organizations representing Californians who have been disproportionately impacted by tobacco. When research is completed, centers must disseminate the findings back to the community.
• Administration: Each center provides infrastructure support for research and training activities.

“What’s exciting is that now we have three centers, and they are all very specialized in what they do,” says TRDRP’s Senior Program Officer for State and Local Health Policy Dr. Maggie Kulik who oversees the TPRCs. “All three of them have connections with TRDRP Smoke and Vape-Free Scholars Initiatives (SVSFI) [which train the next generation of tobacco researchers from priority populations], so we are building synergies that way as well.”

About the Policy Research Center for Tobacco and the Environment

With a vision to “conduct community-driven tobacco policy research that leads to cleaner and healthier indoor and outdoor environments by eliminating the toxic legacy of commercial tobacco products,” the Policy Research Center for Tobacco and the Environment was established at SDSU in 2022 and received TRDRP funding to become one of three Tobacco Policy Research Centers in 2023. The Policy Research Center is part of the SDSU’s Center for Tobacco and the Environment, established in 2022.

Partnering with SAY (Social Advocates for Youth) San Diego, a nonprofit focused on achieving opportunity, equity, and well-being for all San Diegans, the Policy Research Center’s work will support California’s Tobacco Endgame policy, which seeks to end commercial tobacco sales and use in the state.

“Our Center is particularly excited about our close collaborations with SAY San Diego,” says Dr. Georg Matt, SDSU professor of psychology, “[as well as] more than 30 local and regional organizations that represent youth, underrepresented racial/ethnic/sexual groups, businesses, local government, education, health, environmental organizations, Tribal communities, tobacco control, and housing.” Matt serves as the Policy Research Center’s PI with and co-directs the Center with SAY San Diego’s Mary Baum, former Senior Director for their Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drugs Prevention Program and current Associate Vice President of Philanthropy.

With community input and guidance, the Policy Research Center identified three major policy emphases: the environmental impact of tobacco product waste in outdoor environments, the health and environmental impact of second- and thirdhand smoke in indoor environments, and youth tobacco product use.

Tobacco use generates enormous amounts of non-biodegradable tobacco waste—including cigarette butts, vaping pods, and more—that harms ecosystems and, potentially, human health. This litter accumulates in the environment, and research out of the Center also showed that this waste has high economic costs. The Policy Research Center will continue researching solutions for eliminating tobacco product waste and additionally, will also address policy issues related to thirdhand smoke, the toxic residue remaining on furniture, walls, and other surfaces that can remain for years after smoking has stopped. Finally, the Policy Research Center will study strategies to reduce tobacco use among youth, such as the use of restorative practice approaches in local school communities for students who face disciplinary action related to tobacco and vaping, effectively keeping more kids in school while educating them on the harms of tobacco and nicotine product use.

In addition to researching local and state-wide tobacco policy issues, “our new center will offer training for community organizations, mentoring to students and emerging researchers, and tobacco education to the general public,” says Matt. The Center is unique in having affiliated SDSU professors from diverse disciplines including chemistry, biology, public health, economics, and communications. SDSU is one of the partners for TRDRP’s SVFSI program, with funding to train up to 15 undergraduate scholars from under-represented communities.

Read the about the other two policy research centers in California here.

Source: Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program

This content was edited for style and length.