Tobacco Prevention and Control Branch

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Welcome to the North Carolina Tobacco Prevention and Control Branch web site. Advocates and professionals will find information about evidence-based ways to reduce the toll of tobacco use on NC communities and to promote tobacco-free living. There is also information for anyone who is trying to quit using tobacco in the Quitting Tobacco section.

Tobacco use remains the number one preventable cause of death and disease in the United States and North Carolina. The good news is WE KNOW WHAT WORKS and we are making steady progress in North Carolina and the nation. We work on this complex public health problem by building support for proven strategies to:

þ Prevent the initiation of smoking and other tobacco use
þ Eliminate exposure to secondhand smoke
þ Help tobacco-users quit; and
þ Identify and eliminate tobacco-related health disparities among NC populations and communities

House Bill 24 signed into law!

In effect on January 1, 2008, this new NC statute will ban smoking inside all state government buildings and allow NC local governments to do the same, if they choose. Read more...

HB 24 Resource for Local Government

HB 24 Resources for State Government

Chantix Adds Warning to U.S. Label

Read Pfizer's warning to Chantix patients (link opens in new window)

Pfizer, the maker of Chantix, a drug approved by the FDA to assist smokers in quitting, has updated the product's label to include a warning that patients who are using Chantix should be watched for serious neuropsychiatric symptoms, such as changes in behavior, agitation, depressed mood, and suicidal thoughts or behavior. A causal relationship has not been established between the use of Chantix and these symptoms, but, in some reports, could not be ruled out. These are results of Pfizer and the FDA's ongoing safety review of post-marketing reports.

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