Equity Impact Assessment: A Tool for Making Nicotine Policy Fairer
An equity impact assessment evaluates how a proposed policy will affect different populations—particularly the disadvantaged. It's standard practice in some policy domains. It's almost never used in nicotine regulation.
A flavor ban is proposed. An equity impact assessment would ask: how will this affect low-income smokers who depend on flavored products? How will it affect racial minorities targeted by menthol marketing? How will it affect the mentally ill who smoke at elevated rates? **The assessment doesn't dictate the policy outcome. It informs it—making visible the distributional consequences that the standard policy analysis ignores. Equity impact assessment is standard practice in environmental justice. It's nonexistent in nicotine.**
