The Tobacco Regulatory Science (TRS) Knowledge Center

Today, FDA launched the Searchable Tobacco Products Database, a new user-friendly list of tobacco products—including e-cigarettes—that may be legally marketed in the United States. The database is designed to serve the public—especially retailers—by providing this key information in a single location, with easy-to-use search capabilities. The database, which can be accessed at www.fda.gov/searchtobacco, will be updated on a monthly basis.  

Within the database, FDA provides information on three categories of products: 1) new tobacco products that received marketing authorization through one of FDA’s three pathways to market a new tobacco product; 2) pre-existing tobacco products established through a voluntary determination program (commercially marketed as of Feb. 15, 2007); and 3) provisional tobacco products that were removed from review. 

“CTP remains committed to enhanced transparency in a way that is useful, timely, and user-friendly,” said Brian King, Ph.D., M.P.H., director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products. “We hope that this database will be an asset to stakeholders—including retailers—that will be used to help facilitate compliance with the law.”

Read the Statement

TUS-CPS September 2022 Data and Brief Now Available 
Code Now Available in Stata, R, and SAS Programming Languages

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) is pleased to announce that the initial release from the 2022-2023 Tobacco Use Supplement to the Current Population Survey (TUS-CPS), consisting of September 2022 data, is now publicly available. A subsequent data release will include the remaining two time points of data (January 2023 and May 2023) and is expected to be available later in 2024.

A Data Brief presenting a synopsis of the early September 2022 results is available on NCI’s website. The brief details current use of a variety of tobacco products, smoking frequency, recent quit attempts, and e-cigarette device types and flavors.

Download Data Brief 

Also, supporting code (i.e., programs to read in the data files) is now available in both Stata and R programming languages for the 2018-2019 survey wave. The new Stata and R supporting code is available here. The addition of both Stata and R supporting code to existing SAS code should make TUS-CPS data available for use by an even greater range of researchers interested in analyzing key tobacco use behaviors, attitudes, and policies in the United States. 

The Tobacco Use Supplement represents a unique opportunity to track long-term trends and conduct complex analyses within the Current Population Survey, at both the national and state levels.

For questions about the TUS-CPS, contact us at ncidccpsbrpadvances@mail.nih.gov.

The TUS-CPS is co-sponsored by NCI’s Behavioral Research Program in the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences and the Food and Drug Administration, Center for Tobacco Products. For more information, visit cancercontrol.cancer.gov/tus-cps.

Subscribe to TUS-CPS email updates and news at cancercontrol.cancer.gov/TUSsubscribe.

NIH’s National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) announced the continuation of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study through the award of a contract to Westat. The continuation of the PATH Study, through this third contract, provides further opportunities for researchers to use study data to advance knowledge about tobacco and health. Since the launch of Wave 1 in 2013, the PATH Study has been in the field continually, conducting 7 main waves of data collection (Waves 1-7), as well as, 3 additional special data collections (Waves 4.5, 5.5/Adult Telephone Survey, and 7.5). Wave 8 data collection is currently underway and this new contract supports at least four additional waves of main data collection, as well as other special data collections.

The continuing objectives of the PATH Study are to enhance the evidence base to inform FDA's regulatory actions under the Tobacco Control Act by examining tobacco product use behaviors and trajectories, assessing health outcomes, evaluating the impacts of CTP regulations on those outcomes, as well as conducting additional data collections in response to emerging regulatory needs as appropriate. The PATH Study provides longitudinal data on the impact of tobacco products on the health of the population, including data on the potential of tobacco products to encourage cessation among people who currently use tobacco, and the potential to prevent relapse/reuptake by those with former use, and initiation of tobacco use, particularly youth.

Members of the research community are encouraged to learn more about the PATH Study and to apply for access to the PATH Study Restricted-Use Files (RUFs) or to download the Public-Use Files (PUFs) at Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study Series (umich.edu). This site also provides information about how to apply to the Biospecimen Access Program for access to the urine, serum, plasma, and genomic DNA (gDNA) collected from a subsample of PATH Study participants.