National Resources

Research – Databases & Search Engines

Journals, Reports, and Publications

Material Development Resources

Other California Partners

National Resources

This site has extensive legislative and advocacy resources, including model policies and links, resource materials and information on secondhand smoke and smoke-free advocacy, youth, ANR’s airports campaign, ventilation, preemption, educational programs, and the tobacco industry (internal tobacco documents, industry quotes and strategies, and several full-text reports including the 1999 report, “The National Smokers Alliance (NSA) Exposed”).

APPEAL is a national social justice network of organizations and individuals working towards a tobacco-free Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community. Its mission is to prevent tobacco use within the Asian American and Pacific Islander community through five priority areas: network development, capacity building, education, advocacy, and leadership development. The APPEAL website presents information about APPEAL and its members throughout the United States. It also provides: facts and resources about the AAPI community and tobacco use; information about APPEAL’s educational kits, newsletter and research monographs; capacity building information and resources; the National APPEAL Youth Leadership Program; policy news and links; and an events calendar.

A program of the Health Education Council, the Break Free Alliance engages key organizations serving low SES populations in tobacco control efforts and assists them with tobacco control education, resource and policy development and assessments, technical assistance, capacity building, and evaluation to prevent and reduce tobacco use in low-income communities. Low socioeconomic status (SES) individuals have poorer health, exhibit fewer healthy behaviors, and are less likely to pursue preventive health care. Clearly, there is a need to network groups and organizations servicing low SES populations in a national effort to reduce tobacco use. Connecting such groups is one of the Alliance’s goals.

This site provides extensive coverage of tobacco education and prevention issues including 1) quick tobacco information and links; 2) a catalog of CDC/OSH publications; 3) Surgeon General’s Reports; 4) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports; 5) Quit guides; 6) material for parents, educators, professional and youth leaders; 7) new citations of recently published literature related to smoking; 8) national, state, and local tobacco control data, full-text publications and reports, and the State Tobacco Activities Tracking & Evaluation System searchable database; 9) Celebrities Against Smoking campaigns; 10) national campaigns and events links; 11) searchable CDC Smoking and Health database; 12) access to tobacco industry documents; 13) TIPS for Youth; and 14) media campaign resources. The site also maintains press releases and links to other sites.

Site includes 1) press releases; 2) searchable CTCP Project Directory; 3) local program information and publications; 4) statewide Tobacco Education Media Campaign; 5) the California Smokers’ Helpline; 6) evaluation resources, references, and full-text evaluation publications and reports; and 7) other full-text publications and fact sheets. NOTE: To find information on California laws and the status of Assembly and Senate Bills, use the Official California Legislative Information (www.leginfo.ca.gov/).

This site includes 1) Federal Initiatives section with detailed information, reports, and fact sheets about critical federal tobacco control issues; 2) State Initiatives; 3) Global Initiatives including information on WHO, news, fact sheets, country case studies and reports, international events calendar, and links to websites from around the world; 4) Youth Action; 5) searchable Tobacco News section; 6) general fact sheets, research, special reports, and comprehensive web links; 7) press releases and statements for reporters and other journalists; 8) Tobacco Ad Gallery; and 9) Special Reports including background material, charts, web links, fact sheets, press releases, e-movies, and court records.

ImpacTeen is an interdisciplinary partnership of nationally recognized health experts with specialties in such areas as economics, etiology, epidemiology, law, political science, public policy, psychology, and sociology. The project, part of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Bridging the Gap: Research Informing Practice and Policy for Healthy Youth Behavior, focuses on economic, environmental, and policy influences on youth substance use, obesity and physical activity. The State Level Tobacco Legislative Database provides tobacco control policy and prevalence data for all states from 1991-2008. State-specific policy data address the following main topic areas: (1) price/tax/funding, (2) youth access laws, (3) smoke-free air laws, and (4) smoke-free air preemption.

NAATPN is a national organization dedicated to facilitating the development and implementation of comprehensive and community competent tobacco control programs to benefit communities and people of African descent. NAATPN provides technical assistance support to African Americans interested in reducing tobacco use within the African American community. THE NAATPN website features information about the organization and its members, a news and events feature, a listserv, resources (workshops, speakers bureau, publications – fact sheets, spoof cards, PSA samples), and cessation information.

Established in July 2008, the NLTCN, a national collaboration between various public health groups and community organizations, addresses tobacco use among Hispanics and Latinos. NLTCN aims to build leadership, inform, support, and organize a national network of tobacco control experts and advocates to work with Latino communities, states, and coalitions. The website features a directory of individuals interested in or currently working in the Hispanic community addressing tobacco use, alcohol and drug abuse, and other disparities issues.

Funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Office on Smoking and Health (OSH), the National LGBT Tobacco Control Network serves as a clearinghouse for tobacco control and prevention advocates working on LGBT tobacco efforts. It supports local tobacco control advocates in helping to eliminate tobacco health disparities for all lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. The website provides comprehensive resources and materials to support the Network’s priority areas: LGBT youth, LGBT clean indoor air, LGBT cessation, and LGBT State (help states incorporate LGBT health disparity work in to their current tobacco activities).

NNCTAPN provides a forum for tribes and tribal organizations to obtain and disseminate evidence-based and culturally appropriate information in order to identify and eliminate health disparities related to commercial tobacco abuse. NNCTAPN’s website, provides information and resources for developing commercial tobacco abuse prevention efforts. The website features information about the program and program activities, Native American photos and images, online videos, news, tobacco facts and statistics, events list, registration for membership (some website sections and services are only available to members), and resources (publications, web links, presentations).

The NTCC, a group including the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, federal agencies, national tobacco control organizations and others working in cessation research and related fields, focuses on increasing collaboration between members and increasing successful cessation among tobacco users in the US and Canada. The NTCC website offers a collection of tobacco cessation resources, policy, and research materials covering cessation issues, cessation medication insurance coverage and reimbursement, programmatic issues, and best practices. Other features include 1) a working bibliography with key articles, studies, and papers on a variety of cessation related topics; 2) links to reports, publications, tools, and other helpful resources related to cessation; and 3) the monthly NTCC Newsletter which presents a spotlight article on a specific cessation topic, recent research findings, and announcements on funding opportunities, calls for papers, and upcoming conferences and trainings.

A customized email news service and comprehensive website on tobacco and smoking research, resources, news and current events. The daily news summaries service includes information on health/cessation, secondhand smoke, teen smoking, federal issues, settlements and lawsuits, tobacco industry documents, local/state and international news, agriculture, business, tobacco control, smuggling/crime, society, fires, opinion/editorials, and all stories from a specific state. The service can be easily customized for your areas of interest. Also features daily quotes, VCR Alerts, web links, a tobacco timeline, activism guide, and a searchable database of the current and archived news summaries.

This website provides updates on both the Tobacco Free Initiative and FCTC activities as well as information on World No Tobacco Day, excerpts from speeches, press releases, and numerous full-text WHO, UN, and other international agency publications and reports.

Research – Databases & Search Engines

Created by the California Department of Public Health, California Tobacco Control Program (CDPH/CTCP) and the Tobacco Education Clearinghouse of California (TECC), the County and Statewide Archive of Tobacco Statistics (C-STATS) website’s mission is to provide access to a wide variety of tobacco control-related information and statistics, including evaluation resources for local projects, publications, and local information on a broad range of tobacco-related indicators, from behavioral measures to local policies. The website data can be viewed by a particular data type or by either county or statewide data. The data sources are from the U.S. Census Bureau; California Tobacco Survey (CTS); California Student Tobacco Survey (CSTS); Cost of Smoking Report 1999; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) WONDER website; Women, Infant, and Children (WIC) Database; and the California Smokers’ Helpline.

This comprehensive medical database contains information for more than 4,500 journals and over 11 million citations. Searching this site can be tricky, so make use of the numerous help screens and FAQs. Use Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) terminology for the best search results. Search results can be displayed, printed, downloaded as text or HTML, and/or sent as email.

Part of CDC’s Tobacco Information and Prevention (“TIPS”) Source website, this website was created in response to President Clinton’s 1998 Executive Memorandum which provides for greater public access to tobacco industry documents released through litigation. This site provides a site glossary, which explains special terms used in the site and in tobacco industry databases; comprehensive descriptions and links to tobacco company and independent websites containing tobacco industry documents; searchable access to the 4B citation index, which provides objective indexing information about the documents provided by tobacco companies during the litigation that are now housed at the Minnesota Tobacco Document Depository; access to a special set of documents used in the Minnesota trial; and access to the Guilford/British American Tobacco Documents.

Containing over 62,000 records, the CDC’s searchable Smoking and Health Database includes scientific, medical, technical, policy, behavioral, legal, and historical literature related to smoking and tobacco use and its effect on health. It presents lengthy abstracts of journal articles, books and book chapters, dissertations, reports, conference proceedings and conference papers, government documents, policy or legal documents, editorials, letters, and comments on articles. A simple search can be done using title, author, keyword, journal name, subject heading, or publication year.

Journals, Reports, and Publications

The TECC Resource Library subscribes to many tobacco control, public health, and even tobacco industry journals. The journal websites listed below allow you to search for journal articles. Most websites provide abstracts for each journal article and some provide the full-text article. Although TECC does not loan out entire journal issues to projects, we can send, email, or fax CTCP-funded projects journal articles. Please note that, because of federal copyright restrictions, TECC only has a limited number of copies of full-text journal articles. For more information, contact the TECC Library staff at tecccirc@tecc.org.

Material Development Resources

This official Microsoft training site provides easy to follow web-based training for all Microsoft programs. The training for Word and Publisher are especially helpful to anyone using these programs for design.

Online Printers

There are many online printers available. Complete a search online for the many options and browse each site for ease of use, variety of templates in design and format, as well as price breaks.

Contains step-by-step guidelines and exercises, including researching demographics, using focus groups (with sample questions), using mass media, and pretesting (with sample questions) – The Family Health Institute

Developing Effective Print Materials for Low Literate Readers – National Institutes of Health

A planner’s guide for developing and evaluating health communications – National Institutes of Health

An overview of the theories and process of changing health-related behaviors – National Institutes of Health

An easy to use SMOG (reading level) calculator. Simply copy your text and paste it into the calculator box for an instant calculation of reading level.

Links to tutorials, tips, templates, graphics, and fonts from About.com

Offers basic design principles for creating websites – Yale University Center for Advanced Instructional Media

General guidelines and answers to common questions about copyright issues.

Photography and Illustrations

The following sites offer no-cost or low-cost royalty-free images for use in developing publications. Search by topic for photos, illustrations, and clip art. A variety of sizes, formats, and prices are available.

Other California Partners

CCAP addresses secondhand smoke issues within California by: creating and implementing educational programs and policy-advocacy initiatives; developing and distributing materials; and serving the needs and responding to requests for assistance from local programs, members of the hospitality and housing industry, policymakers, law enforcement agencies, and the general public throughout the state. This site contains information and resources to support these efforts.

The Helpline provides two public websites: a general site for information about free Helpline services and materials and an interactive youth cessation site. The youth site features animated models, quizzes, and programs that show the cost of smoking; physiological effects of smoking; social consequences of smoking; tobacco industry manipulation and marketing; various cessation methods available; tips on how to quit; and a fun section with cartoons, a message board, and youth-oriented web links.

The online searchable California Tobacco Project Directory provides information about projects funded by the California Department of Public Health, California Tobacco Control Program.

CYAN is dedicated to the support of youth and young adult tobacco control advocacy throughout California. By providing young people and agencies working with young people with the tangible tools for action, CYAN strives to mobilize a powerful statewide movement for tobacco control. CYAN sponsors a number of statewide advocacy and policy campaigns designed to reach the youth and young adult community and reduce their exposure to and use of tobacco products. CYAN also provides training and technical assistance on college campus policy development and implementation (i.e. establishing smoke-free campus policies), and other advocacy issues affecting youth and young adults.

The TALC website provides full-text TALC model policies, ordinances, fact sheets, and summary papers on the following topics: advertising, divestment, licensing, zoning, litigation, secondhand smoke, Master Settlement Agreement, and the California laws booklet, “Piecing It Together.” After filling out a short form, which TALC uses for tracking purposes, materials can be downloaded.

TCEC provides technical assistance to agencies funded by the California Tobacco Control Program (CTCP) on evaluation planning, creating and/or adapting data collection instruments, and implementing evaluation activities. The TCEC website provides numerous sample data collection instruments on tobacco control objectives most commonly worked on by CTCP funded projects including: smoke-free entryways, tobacco sales in pharmacies, outdoor dining, secondhand smoke in multi-unit housing, awareness of local smoking cessation services, rodeo sponsorship, youth tobacco sales, and more.

TEAM Lab provides training and technical assistance on materials development and a wide range of health literacy topics to agencies funded by the California Tobacco Control Program (CTCP) including webinars on health communications, health literacy, cultural competency issues, strategies for message framing and other topics. TEAM Lab also develops high-quality population-specific educational materials, advocacy campaign materials, and how-to guides and kits to support California campaigns and tobacco control laws. TEAM Lab’s website features a blog, free step-by-step lessons in developing materials, a translation services list, and several other web resources.