View some of our victories and milestones in the American Lung Association's efforts to create a tobacco free future. Use the filter tools below to search by date or subject.
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2021
On April 29, 2021, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced its intention to issue proposed rules in April 2022 to remove menthol cigarettes and most flavored cigars from the marketplace. The announcement came in response to a lawsuit filed by the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council, Action on Smoking and Health and several other organizations seeking response to a 2013 citizen’s petition seeking FDA action on menthol.
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2021
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was under a court-ordered deadline of September 9, 2021 to review premarket tobacco product applications submitted by all e-cigarette and some other tobacco product manufacturers submitted a year earlier. FDA has yet determine applications for e-cigarette products with the highest market share, including Juul, or any menthol e-cigarettes. It also granted a marketing order for a high-nicotine Vuse e-cigarette. The Lung Association has encouraged FDA’s swift removal of all flavored products while simultaneously defending FDA’s authority to issue marketing denial orders.
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2020
All e-cigarette and most tobacco product manufacturers were required to submit a premarket review application to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) by September 9, 2020 to demonstrate their products are appropriate for the protection of the public health. This will allow FDA to determine whether the products should remain on the market. Unfortunately, a federal judge exempted premium cigars from this requirement until further FDA action.
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2020
The U.S. Surgeon General released a new report entitled "Smoking Cessation: A Report of the Surgeon General." This report made a number of important conclusions about quitting smoking and the benefits of doing so. These included that insurance coverage that provides access to quit smoking treatments without barriers and other public policies such as increasing the price of cigarettes, adopting smokefree air policies, maintaining comprehensive statewide tobacco control programs, requiring graphic warning labels and implementing mass media campaigns, are proven to increase cessation rates.
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2020
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released guidance on flavored e-cigarettes that will do little to protect youth. The guidance allowed menthol-flavored Juul, disposable e-cigarettes and thousands of flavors of e-cigarettes sold in vape shops to remain on the market. This was a reversal from the Administration’s announcement in September 2019 when President Trump said that they would clear the market of all flavored e-cigarettes to deal with the youth vaping epidemic.
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2020
On March 15, FDA issued a final rule requiring graphic warning labels on cigarettes as required by a March 2019 U.S. District Court order. This action is a result of a court case brought by the American Lung Association and its partners. Unfortunately, the tobacco industry filed multiple lawsuits to prevent the warning labels from taking effect in 2020, which have delayed implementation of the warning labels until at least 2023.
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2019
In December Congress approved and the President signed legislation raising the tobacco sales age to 21 across the country. Nineteen states and DC had passed state Tobacco 21 laws prior to the national law passing in December.
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2019
The Lung Association and our partners were victorious in a lawsuit against the Food and Drug Administration, with a federal judge ruling that FDA’s 2017 delay in the deeming rule gave "manufacturers responsible for the public harm a holiday from meeting the obligations of the law."
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2018
U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams issued an advisory on the e-cigarette epidemic among youth. This was in response to the staggering increase among youth e-cigarette use – from 2017 to 2018. Results from the 2018 National Youth Tobacco Survey found that e-cigarette use rose by 78% among high school students and close to 50% among middle school students.
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2018
The American Lung Association and several of its health partners filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) decision to delay the deeming rule in 2017, which allowed electronic cigarettes and cigars – including candy-flavored products that appeal to kids – to stay on the market for years without being reviewed by the agency.
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2018
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development implemented its final rule requiring all public housing agencies to have smokefree policies for all residential units and common areas in place. The rule will protect close to two million Americans, including 690,000 children, from exposure to secondhand smoke in their homes.
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2017
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced multi-year delays to major parts of its 2016 "deeming" rule asserting authority of all tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, cigars and hookah tobacco. FDA also announced its intention to reduce nicotine in cigarettes to non-addictive levels over an undetermined time period.
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2017
After many years of delay, tobacco companies began running "corrective statements" in print newspaper and on TV in 2017 and 2018 related to their 50-year campaign of deception and fraud about the dangers of smoking and exposure to secondhand smoke. The statements were originally ordered by Judge Kessler as part of her 2006 decision in the 1999 Department of Justice lawsuit against the tobacco companies where they were found guilty of civil racketeering charges.
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2016
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a final rule in May 2016 that gives the agency oversight authority over all tobacco products, including cigars, hookah and e-cigarettes. This allows FDA to restrict sales of these products to youth, prohibit flavors and take other important actions to protect public health.
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2016
The U.S. Surgeon General issued a report entitled "E-Cigarette Use Among Youth and Young Adults," which looked at the real and potential dangers e-cigarettes pose to kids. Major conclusions include that e-cigarette use among youth has become a public health concern; e-cigarette aerosol is not safe and can contain harmful and potentially harmful constituents.
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2015
The Institute of Medicine released a new report entitled, "Health Implications of Raising the Minimum Age for purchasing Tobacco Products." The report found that raising the minimum age for legal purchase of tobacco products to at least 21 years old will significantly reduce youth smoking initiation and rates. Subsequently, Hawaii became the first state to raise the minimum sales age for tobacco products to 21.
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2014
Major parts of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act were implemented as of January 1, including new health insurance options and requirements that most private health plans must cover preventive services, including a comprehensive quit smoking benefit. Another key component implemented was Medicaid expansion, which provides a comprehensive quit smoking benefit to millions of low-income Americans.
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2014
The U.S. Surgeon General released a new report entitled "Surgeon General's Report on Smoking & Health 50th Anniversary 1964-2014" that documents the progress that has been made on reducing tobacco use over the past 50 years, and provides an update on the health effects of tobacco use and exposure to secondhand smoke.
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2014
FDA launches its public education campaign, "The Real Cost" aimed at preventing youth ages 12-17, including priority populations from starting to use tobacco products.
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2014
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its Best Practices for Comprehensive Tobacco Control Programs refining the evidence-based recommendations for effective tobacco control programs run by states to prevent and reduce tobacco use.
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2012
The U.S. Surgeon General released a new Surgeon General's report on youth and young adult tobacco use entitled, "Preventing Tobacco Use Among Youth and Young Adults: A Report of the Surgeon General."
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2012
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention launches the first ever federal government paid media advertising campaign encouraging people to quit smoking, Tips from Former Smokers, which features real people living with diseases caused by smoking.
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2012
North Dakota approves a comprehensive smokefree law by ballot initiative becoming the 28th smokefree state.
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2010
President Obama signs the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law. The law includes important provisions that will expand tobacco cessation benefits and establishes the Prevention and Public Health Fund, which provides funds to prevent and reduce tobacco use.
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2010
Youth access and marketing restrictions on tobacco products take effect and cigarette companies are prohibited from using "light", "low" and other misleading health descriptors.
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2010
The U.S. Surgeon General releases the 30th Surgeon General's report on tobacco entitled, "How Tobacco Smoke Causes Disease: The Biology and Behavioral Basis for Smoking-Attributable Disease."
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2009
President Obama signs legislation granting the U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulatory authority over tobacco products. Tobacco products are now no longer exempt from basic oversight.
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2008
The American Lung Association launches its State Tobacco Cessation Coverage Database, which tracks what each state covers to help smokers quit. This database, available at www.lung.org/cessationcoverage is the only comprehensive, up-to-date source for information on coverage of cessation treatments for Medicaid recipients, state employees, and laws requiring private health insurance plans to cover quit smoking treatments.
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2008
The U.S. Public Health Service releases an important update to its Guideline on Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence. This guideline contains recommendations for doctors on how to help their patients quit using tobacco, and recommends the use of 7 medications and 3 types of counseling to help people quit.
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2006
Judge Kessler releases her final ruling in the U.S. Department of Justice's federal suit against the tobacco companies. She finds that the tobacco industry had lied for 50 years and deceived the American public on health issues and marketing to children.
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2006
The Surgeon General releases The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke. The report said unequivocally that the "debate is over" – secondhand smoke in any form at any level is harmful to health.
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2005
After over a year of court proceedings in the U.S. Department of Justice's suit against the tobacco companies, the Department announced that it was reducing the amount of remedies it was seeking in the case by billions of dollars. Six major public health groups, including the American Lung Association, intervene in the lawsuit to advocate for stricter remedies to preclude future tobacco industry wrongdoings.
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2004
The United States signs the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Treaty, which is the world's first tobacco control treaty and establishes international guidelines for countries to implement and control tobacco use and addiction. The treaty has not yet been sent to the U.S. Senate for ratification.
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2002
The American Lung Association releases the first edition of the State of Tobacco Control report. This report, available at www.lung.org/research/sotc, tracks progress on key tobacco control policies at the state and later the federal level and assigns grades to state laws and regulations. It is released annually in January.
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2002
The result of advocacy work led by the American Lung Association, Delaware's statewide smokefree law goes into effect. Delaware was the first state in four years to pass a smokefree law, and this event was the catalyst for many other states to go smokefree in the 2000's.
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2000
The U.S. Supreme Court rules in a 5-4 decision that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration could not assert authority over tobacco products without being given the power to do so by Congress. Efforts turn to Congress to pass legislation.
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1999
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention releases the first edition of Best Practices for Comprehensive Tobacco Control Programs. This document details how state tobacco control programs should be structured to best prevent smoking and help smokers quit. It also recommends minimum funding levels at which each state can best run these programs.
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1999
The U.S. Department of Justice announces it is suing the tobacco industry under the RICO statute – the same statute used to prosecute the Mob – claiming the tobacco industry engaged in a "coordinated campaign of fraud and deceit."
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1998
Attorneys General from 46 states and the tobacco industry reach the landmark Master Settlement Agreement to reimburse state government for tobacco-related health care costs. The billions of dollars were supposed to be used to prevent smoking and help people quit, unfortunately states have used the majority of this money for other, unrelated purposes.
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1998
California becomes the first state in the nation to eliminate smoking in bars. This law, along with the law eliminating smoking in restaurants and most other public places, makes California the first state to pass a comprehensive statewide smokefree air law. The American Lung Association was one of the organizations leading the campaign for this law.
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1996
American Lung Association assumes responsibility for publishing State Legislated Actions on Tobacco Issues. This record is still maintained and updated, and is available at http://slati.lung.org.
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1995
In response to a letter from the American Lung Association and its public health partners, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration asserts jurisdiction over tobacco products by declaring nicotine a drug. President Clinton approves this proposal in 1996, giving the agency authority to regulate cigarettes as a "drug delivery device."
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1994
Seven tobacco company executives testify before Rep. Henry Waxman's (D-CA) congressional committee that they do not believe nicotine is addictive.
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1993
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency published Respiratory Health Effects of Passive Smoking: Lung Cancer and Other Disorders. The report concludes that secondhand smoke is responsible for approximately 3,000 lung cancer deaths each year in nonsmoking adults and impairs the respiratory health of hundreds of thousands of children.
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1990
San Luis Obispo, California becomes the first city in the world to eliminate smoking in all public buildings, including bars and restaurants.
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1989
A bill spearheaded by Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Rep. Dick Durbin (D-IL) passed Congress prohibiting smoking on all domestic airlines. The American Lung Association was one of the public health groups leading efforts to pass this law.
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1988
Tobacco Free America (American Lung Association, American Heart Association and American Cancer Society) publish State Legislated Actions on Tobacco Issues. This document tracked tobacco control policies – like tobacco taxes, smokefree air laws, and tobacco control program funding – for every state.
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1988
California voters approve Proposition 99, which increased the cigarette tax by 25 cents and dedicated some of the revenue to create the first comprehensive statewide tobacco control program in California. It was also the first time a state dedicated proceeds from tobacco taxes to help prevent and stop smoking. The American Lung Association was instrumental in the passage of this proposition, and subsequent support for the California Tobacco Control Program.
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1987
The RJ Reynolds tobacco company debuts the Joe Camel character in its U.S. advertisements. This cartoon character hooked millions of kids on Camel tobacco products.
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1987
Aspen, Colorado becomes the first city in the United States to require smokefree restaurants.
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1987
Congress prohibits smoking on domestic flights of less than two hours. Takes effect in 1988.
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1986
The 19th Surgeon General's report on The Health Consequences of Involuntary Smoking is published. This report first officially acknowledged and emphasized the harmful effects of secondhand smoke.
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1984
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves nicotine gum as the first drug designed to help people quit smoking.
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1975
The Minnesota Clean Indoor Air Act goes into effect. This is the first statewide law in the nation that requires separate smoking areas in public places.
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1968
Philip Morris introduces the Virginia Slims brand. With its iconic "You've come a long way baby" ad campaign targeting women.
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1966
Health warnings first appear on cigarette packs in response to congressional legislation. The warnings read, "Caution—cigarette smoking may be hazardous to your health."
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1964
The first Surgeon General's report on smoking is published. Called Smoking and Health: Report of the Advisory Committee to the Surgeon General of the Public Health Service, this report recognized the proven link between smoking and lung cancer.
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1961
The American Lung Association, along with its public health partners, write to President Kennedy, highlighting the increasing evidence of the health hazards of smoking and urging him to establish a commission to address the problem. This letter led to the publishing of the landmark Surgeon General's report in 1964.
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1954
Richard Doll and A. Bradford Hill, publish an article in the British Medical Journal that confirms the link between smoking and lung cancer.
Page last updated: April 17, 2024