What can we do right now to support tobacco control?

The closing of the CDC Office on Smoking and Health (OSH) is a great blow to public health in the United States. We should collect ideas on actions that each of us, as individuals and organizations, can take to make up for that loss.

Learn about the functions of the OSH and how it was shut down. This webinar from UCSF provides an excellent update:

Tobacco Cessation Under Siege: Industry Reinvention, Federal Setbacks, and California’s Lessons in Resilience

Current list

Updated 12/22/2025

1.  Improve tobacco treatment. Physicians do not routinely apply evidence-based treatment to their patients

2. Adopt Systems Change for tobacco treatment. Current practices in patient flow to not support identification and treatment of patient who use tobacco. Systems change is effective and produces a return on investment. Tobacco Cessation as a Profit Center — Edward Anselm, MD

3. Strengthen tobacco use identification in clinical practice. Most health systems do not capture all tobacco users in their EMR systems. Adopt best practices as shown by Kaiser Permanente of Northern California here.

4. Hire Tobacco Treatment Specialists (TTS). Large numbers of talented professionals have been let go from state Quit lines. They can be hired by ACOs. medical groups and health insurance companies to increase revenue and generate savings on future medical expense. TTS provide counseling, which is a neglected component of tobacco treatment

5. Communicate empowering messages about tobacco cessation: There are more former smokers than current smokers. Although funding for TIPS has been removed, you can access and re-broadcast their messages. Real Stories | Real Stories | Tips From Former Smokers | CDC

6..  Track performance of tobacco cessation interventions. How do you compare to the national averages? Measurement of your practice performance is an essential step in any quality improvement program. This includes early adoptionof NCQA HEDIS measure for tobacco cessation: specifications are here

7. Resolve public disputation about the harms of vaping and other non-combustible sources of nicotine. Nicotine in any form is harmful to people under the age of 25. For adults who have difficulty quitting, harm reduction may be the answer. Why would we argue with millions of adults who have already switched from smoking to vaping?

8. Focus on the highest risk populations: Seniors, American Indian and Alaska Natives, people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender, Black people, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander people, and women.

This is by no means a comprehensive listing of the options before us. Please persuade me on linked in or by email, eanselm@msn.com