Monitor on Psychology - February 2012 - (Page 18)

government relatIons update APA scientists help guide tobacco regulation A new arm of FDA is relying on psychologists’ expertise in its effort to protect the public from harms associated with tobacco use. By DR. GEoFFREy MUMFoRD resident Barack Obama gave the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulatory authority over tobacco by signing the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act in 2009. Since then, many APA scientists have worked hard to see that psychological research has been applied to the law’s various mandates, which seek to regulate the way cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products are manufactured, labeled and marketed. The bulk of that work has been conducted under the auspices of the FDA’s new Center for Tobacco Products, which was created by the act, with oversight by the FDA’s Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee. Getting psychologists appointed to the advisory committee was critical, and APA’s nominations were very well received. FDA selected Jack Henningfield, PhD, of the Johns Hopkins University department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, and Dorothy Hatsukami, PhD, of the University of Minnesota Masonic Cancer Center, to serve on the inaugural roster. The advisory committee has been charged with evaluating several areas of interest to psychologists, including: • The impact of menthol in cigarettes on public health, including its use by children, African Americans, Hispanics and other racial and ethnic minorities. • The impact of dissolvable tobacco products on the public health, including 18 p that of children. (Unlike ordinary chewing tobacco, these products dissolve in the mouth.) • The effects of manufacturers’ alteration of nicotine in tobacco products and whether there is a threshold level below which nicotine yields do not produce dependence on the tobacco product involved. • Any application to the FDA for modified-risk tobacco products, in which the manufacturer uses such terms as “mild” or “lite” in its packaging to claim that the product is less harmful than traditional tobacco products. The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act banned the marketing and sale of all flavored tobacco products except menthol in September 2009. In March 2011, a voluminous report on menthol concluded that taking menthol cigarettes off the market would “benefit public health in the United States.” That recommendation was based on findings suggesting that although menthol is not toxic on its own, adding it to tobacco products increases the likelihood that people will try the cigarettes and that they will become addicted to them and make it harder for them to quit. This is particularly true for African-American M o n i t o r o n p s y c h o l o g y • F e b ru a ry 2 0 1 2 Thinkstock

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Monitor on Psychology - February 2012

Monitor on Psychology - February 2012
Letters
President’s column
Contents
From the CEO
APA files two briefs in support of same-sex couples
New registry seeks to understand addiction recovery through ‘crowdsourcing’
APA launches a database of tests and measures
Watch for new member benefit: “APA Access”
Apply now for APA’s Advanced Training Institutes
PsycTHERAPY, APA’s new database, brings therapy demos to life
In Brief
APA scientists help guide tobacco regulation
A-mazing research
‘A machine for jumping to conclusions’
Judicial Notebook
Random Sample
Righting the imbalance
The beginnings of mental illness
Science Directions
Improving disorder classification, worldwide
Protesting proposed changes to the DSM
Interventions for at-risk students
Harnessing the wisdom of the ages
Anti-bullying efforts ramp up
Hostile hallways
R U friends 4 real?
Support for teachers
Speaking of Education
Record keeping for practitioners
Going green
At the intersection of law and psychology
Division Spotlight
Grants help solve society’s problems
Personalities

Monitor on Psychology - February 2012