The FDA Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) is responsible for carrying out the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which Congress passed in 2009. This law—commonly called the Tobacco Control Act—gives us broad authority to regulate the manufacturing, distribution, and marketing of tobacco products.

Vision Statement

To make tobacco-related death and disease part of America's past, not America's future and, by doing so, ensure a healthier life for every family.

---

Mission Statement

To protect Americans from tobacco-related death and disease by regulating the manufacture, distribution, and marketing of tobacco products and by educating the public, especially young people, about tobacco products and the dangers their use poses to themselves and others.

---

The Importance of the Tobacco Control Act

Despite major progress over the past half-century, tobacco use continues to be the leading cause of preventable death and disease in the United States.

• Nearly 9 out of 10 adult daily smokers began by age 18, the minimum legal age to purchase tobacco products.¹
• Nationwide, an estimated 34.3 million—about 14 percent of adults--currently smoke cigarettes.²
• Each year, at least 480,000 people in the U.S. die prematurely from diseases caused by cigarette smoking or secondhand smoke exposure.¹

The statistics around young people are even more sobering.

• Each day in the United States, about 2,000 youth under 18 years of age smoke their first cigarette.³
• E-cigarettes are the most commonly used tobacco product by middle school and high school students in the U.S.³
• Current e-cigarette use increased significantly among middle and high school students from 2.12 million in 2017 to 3.62 million in 2018.⁵
• 4.04 million (27%) of high school students use tobacco products in 2018.⁵ 

This must change.

---

Improving Public Health

Our goal is to reduce the harm from all regulated tobacco products across the entire population, including:

• reducing the number of people who start to use tobacco products
• encouraging more people to stop using these products
• reducing the adverse health impact for those who continue to use these products

FDA's unique position as a regulatory agency allows for a framework of decision-making based on – and within the limits of – both the science and the law. For example, the law gives FDA the authority to adopt science-based product standards, which could require the reduction or elimination of an additive, constituent, or other component if doing so would be appropriate to protect public health.

CTP uses a comprehensive approach as the best way to end the negative health effects of tobacco use. This includes defining policy, issuing regulations, conducting research, educating Americans on regulated tobacco products, and making decisions on whether new products and claims can be marketed—including reviewing and evaluating applications and claims before the products are allowed on the market.

This cohesive, comprehensive approach can help us reach our goals of

• preventing people from starting to use tobacco products
• encouraging tobacco users to quit
• reducing the harm caused by tobacco use

As we work to protect the public’s health, we will use the full power of the law to protect consumers from the dangers of tobacco use.

---

Read more about what we are doing in

• Research to help us carry out our mission based on solid evidence
• Issuing rules (regulations) and setting policy to implement specific parts of the Tobacco Control Act
• Compliance and enforcement to ensure that distributors, importers, manufacturers, and retailers comply with the Tobacco Control Act
• Educating the public, especially youth, about the dangers of tobacco products

More Center for Tobacco Products Information

• Executive Biographies
• Newsroom
• Opportunities to Comment on FDA Regulations
• Overview of the Tobacco Control Act
• Contact our Ombudsman

---

---