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Our work

Our work brings together all Californians who want to protect their community and families from Big Tobacco’s deadly epidemic. From community engagement to education campaigns, to evidence-based research and reports, we’re giving Californians the tools to fight the tobacco industry.

UNDO engages communities throughout California to create tobacco and nicotine-free environments; protect people from exposure to toxic tobacco product waste; eliminate dangerous secondhand smoke and vape aerosol; counter the aggressive and deceptive marketing practices of the tobacco industry; end the availability of deadly and addictive tobacco products, especially to youth; and help those addicted to tobacco and nicotine quit.

Our work at a glance:

  • Community Engagement: Funding is provided to nearly 200 local health departments, nonprofit agencies, and community-based organizations serving counties and cities throughout California. These local and statewide organizations engage community members, educate elected officials, and create policy change crucial in important on-the-ground work to prevent and reduce tobacco use. 
  • Education and Awareness: Our public health education and awareness campaigns use thought-provoking ads to expose the ways that Big Tobacco deceives, manipulates, and targets California communities and educate all Californians on the dangerous impact of tobacco exposure, from deadly secondhand smoke to toxic tobacco waste to the dangers of vapes and oral nicotine pouches. We produce education campaigns in seven languages – English, Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin, Korean, Vietnamese, and Tagalog – to reach California’s diverse populations. Explore UNDO’s campaigns. 
  • Surveillance, Research, and Evaluation: UNDO is a data-driven program. Adult and youth tobacco knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors are tracked through phone, school, and online surveys. These surveys monitor progress and illustrate emerging challenges – like new products being used – which enables us to tailor our education efforts. Evaluation of tobacco prevention components are used to determine which strategies are most effective in protecting Californians.
  • Cessation: We help Californians quit tobacco by providing free cessation assistance in six languages, and for the hearing impaired, through Kick It California; and through efforts to improve awareness, access, and availability of cessation support offered by the health care system, health care plans, and employers. California’s emphasis on increasing and supporting quit attempts is the result of 30 years of proven, science-based strategies. Find resources on quitting at Kick It California.

Featured reports and research

Undoing Big Tobacco’s damage takes research and data. Only by understanding how much the tobacco industry impacts our communities can we ensure our program’s work reaches the right people at the right time to make a difference.
environmental
The quarter that changed the world
April Roeseler, David Burns

Learn how a 25-cent tax helped people quit and kept kids from becoming addicted.

graphup
2024 California Tobacco Facts and Figures

California Department of Public Health, California Tobacco Prevention Program. Get the latest facts and figures on tobacco use in California, like teen vaping rates. 

chart
1998 Model for Change

California Department of Public Health, California Tobacco Prevention Program. Learn more about CTPP’s Social Norm Change approach to public health.

nicotine
Tobacco Product Waste White Paper
Thomas Novotny, MD, MPH, DSc (Hon), et al

Californians are learning cigarette butts and vape waste harm people and the planet.

quitting
Adolescent Support For Ending the Tobacco Epidemic
Benjamin W. Chaffee, et al

72 percent of California teens support ending the sale of tobacco and nicotine. 

vaping
Race/Ethnicity Differences in Youth Vaping
Candice D. Donaldson, et al

Explore the relationship between race, ethnicity, and vaping use.

“

I don’t sell vapes. No profit is worth that ugliness.”

MARIA — LOS ANGELES, CA

A convenience store owner protects her family and her neighborhood by not selling vapes.

Read more
“

Since the ban on smoking, now our customers can smell their food.”

TRAN — WESTMINSTER, CA

Legacy restaurant owner recalls how the 1995 smoking ban drove out the stench of cigarettes and ushered in the aroma of food.

Read more
“

If nobody else is stepping up, you’re nominated.”

ANDREA — SAN DIEGO, CA

When Andrea got sick from secondhand smoke in her Los Angeles office, she made history by suing for assault and battery.

Read more
Nicotine Equals Brain Poison

Nicotine is an addictive poison and neurotoxin12

Nicotine is especially dangerous for kids and young adults’ brains, and can amplify anxiety, depression, mood swings, and learning difficulties.3456

Expose the harms
Flavored tobacco law for tobacco retailers

Selling flavored tobacco is illegal

A California law prohibits retailers from selling most flavored tobacco products, including vapes and menthol cigarettes.7 Follow the law to avoid fines – and save lives.

Follow the law
FEATURED CAMPAIGNS

Big Tobacco’s Fantasyland

The tobacco and nicotine industry promises vaping is “safer.”89 Yet they can contain cancer-causing chemicals like arsenic, lead, and formaldehyde.1011121314151617181920212223 Time to wake up.

Uncover their nicotine nightmare.
Big Tobacco’s Little Big Lie

Big Tobacco is a top global plastic polluter24

Cigarette butts are made of microplastics – tiny toxic fibers that pollute our environment and could harm us all.25262728

Uncover the lie
Black lives & health matter

Menthol cigarette sales law saves Black lives

Ending the sales of menthol cigarettes stops Big Tobacco’s strategic killing of the Black community – improving health equity for all.2930 California’s flavored tobacco law focuses on tobacco retailers – not the people the industry addicts.

See how the law affects you
QUIT RESOURCES

Get help to quit vaping or smoking

Kick It California’s free program has been helping Californians for more than 30 years quit tobacco and nicotine with the help of proven, science-based strategies.

Quit now
“

All eyes are on California. California is once again leading the nation and the world in the fight against tobacco. As the result of decades of innovation and its bold new plans, California is uniquely positioned to be the first in the world to end the tobacco epidemic.”31

Matthew L. Meyers — President [retired], Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids
“

[UNDO is] a model for public health and our state's low and falling smoking rate is a testament that what you do works.”32

Xavier Becerra — United States Secretary of Health and Human Services
“

Ending the sale of flavored tobacco brings us significantly closer to creating a California in which all communities and future generations are free from the tobacco industry’s hold.”33

Dr. Pam Ling — Professor of Medicine, University of California at San Francisco
“

I refuse to accept the idea that these products are with us forever.”32

Dr. Ruth Malone — Professor Emerita, Department Of Social And Behavioral Sciences, UCSF

Read more about our work and wins

Layla, Galia, Lizzy

Explore

Our mission
A California without Big Tobacco isn’t just possible - it’s already happening.3435 Together, we’re undoing the tobacco industry’s epidemic.
Learn more about our mission
Our impact
We’ve made a lot of progress towards ending the tobacco industry’s influence in the last 30 years.363738 But the fight’s not over.
Learn more about our impact

Explore the tobacco industry’s damage

The tobacco industry currently spends billions each year on slick marketing tactics and political influence so they can profit off death and disease.3940
Learn more
Even for people who don’t use tobacco, there can be deadly consequences.1
Learn more
The industry calls kids their “replacement customers.”41 Big Tobacco sentences them to a lifetime of addiction and disease.
Learn more
This racist and unjust industry has strategically targeted certain communities with deadly products and manipulative messaging.42
Learn more
No one’s safe from the environmental damage and health risks from toxic tobacco waste and its plastic pollution.13151643444546
Learn more
Frankie and daughter

Protect the people and places you love

Speak up against Big Tobacco’s damage now.
Raise your voice
  1. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The health consequences of involuntary exposure to tobacco smoke: a report of the surgeon general. Office of Smoking and Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Published 2006. Accessed July 10, 2024. https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/classic/research/apr/reports/l4000a.pdf
  2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Nicotine: Systemic Agent. Updated May 12, 2011. Accessed July 10, 2024. https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/ershdb/emergencyresponsecard_29750028.html
  3. Abreu-Villaça Y, Seidler FJ, Tate CA, Slotkin TA. Nicotine is a neurotoxin in the adolescent brain: critical periods, patterns of exposure, regional selectivity, and dose thresholds for macromolecular alterations. Brain Res. 2003;979(1-2):114-128. doi:10.1016/s0006-8993(03)02885-3 
  4. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Smoking and Tobacco Use: E-cigarette use among youth. Updated May 15, 2024. Accessed July 10, 2024. https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/e-cigarettes/youth.html
  5. Benowitz NL. Pharmacology of nicotine: addiction, smoking-induced disease, and therapeutics. Annu Rev Pharmacol Toxicol. 2009;49:57-71. doi: 10.1146/annurev.pharmtox.48.113006.094742.
  6. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Smoking and Tobacco Use: Health effects of vaping. Updated May 15, 2024. Accessed July 10, 2024 https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/e-cigarettes/health-effects.html
  7. Tobacco sales: flavored tobacco ban 2023. Assembly Bill No. 935. Accessed June, 2024. https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB935
  8. Tobacco Tactics. Newer Nicotine and Tobacco Products. Published July 17, 2023. Accessed September 19, 2023. https://tobaccotactics.org/article/newer-nicotine-and-tobacco-products/#:~:text=Since%20the%20early%202000s%20transnational,)%2C%20snus%20and%20nicotine%20pouches
  9. Sy, D. Big Tobacco’s Investments in and Acquisitions of Pharmaceutical Companies. ExposeTobacco.org. Updated February 2022. Accessed August 15, 2024. https://exposetobacco.org/wp-content/uploads/STOP-Pharma-Brief-3.15.22.pdf
  10. Aherrera A, Lin JJ, Chen R, et al. Metal Concentrations in E-Cigarette Aerosol Samples: A Comparison by Device Type and Flavor. Environ Health Perspect. 2023;131(12):127004. doi:10.1289/EHP11921
  11. Fowles J, Barreau T, Wu N. Cancer and Non-Cancer Risk Concerns from Metals in Electronic Cigarette Liquids and Aerosols. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Mar 24;17(6):2146. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17062146. PMID: 32213824; PMCID: PMC7142621.
  12. Liu Q, Huang C, Chris Le X. Arsenic species in electronic cigarettes: Determination and potential health risk. J Environ Sci (China). 2020;91:168-176. doi:10.1016/j.jes.2020.01.023
  13. National Cancer Institute. Arsenic. Updated December 5, 2022. Accessed March 25, 2025. https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/substances/arsenic
  14. World Health Organization. Arsenic: Key facts. Updated December 7, 2022. Accessed March 25, 2025. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/arsenic
  15. Zhao S, Zhang X, Wang J, Lin J, Cao D, Zhu M. Carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic health risk assessment of organic compounds and heavy metals in electronic cigarettes. Sci Rep. 2023;13(1):16046. Published 2023 Sep 25. doi:10.1038/s41598-023-43112-y
  16. American Cancer Society. Known and probable human carcinogens. Updated August 1, 2024. Accessed March 25, 2025. https://www.cancer.org/cancer/risk-prevention/understanding-cancer-risk/known-and-probable-human-carcinogens.html
  17. Goniewicz ML, Knysak J, Gawron M, et al. Levels of selected carcinogens and toxicants in vapour from electronic cigarettes. Tob Control. 2014;23(2):133-139. doi:10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2012-050859
  18. Hess CA, Olmedo P, Navas-Acien A, Goessler W, Cohen JE, Rule AM. E-cigarettes as a source of toxic and potentially carcinogenic metals. Environ Res. 2017;152:221-225. doi:10.1016/j.envres.2016.09.026
  19. Proposition 65. Lead and Lead Components. Accessed March 25, 2025. https://www.p65warnings.ca.gov/fact-sheets/lead-and-lead-compounds
  20. Williams M, Bozhilov K, Ghai S, Talbot P. Elements including metals in the atomizer and aerosol of disposable electronic cigarettes and electronic hookahs. PLoS One. 2017;12(4):e0175430. Published 2017 Apr 17. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0175430
  21. Kosmider L, Sobczak A, Fik M, et al. Carbonyl compounds in electronic cigarette vapors: effects of nicotine solvent and battery output voltage. Nicotine Tob Res. 2014;16(10):1319-1326. doi:10.1093/ntr/ntu078
  22. Salamanca, J.C., Meehan-Atrash, J., Vreeke, S. et al. E-cigarettes can emit formaldehyde at high levels under conditions that have been reported to be non-averse to users. Sci Rep 8, 7559 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-25907-6
  23. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). Formaldehyde: evidence of carcinogenicity. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Updated June 6, 2014. Accessed March 25, 2025. https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/81-111/default.html
  24. Hendlin YH, Bialous SA. The environmental externalities of tobacco manufacturing: A review of tobacco industry reporting. Ambio. 2020;49(1):17-34. doi:10.1007/S13280-019-01148-3/FIGURES/4.
  25. Belzagui F, Buscio V, Gutiérrez-Bouzán C, Vilaseca M. Cigarette butts as a microfiber source with a microplastic level of concern. Science of The Total Environment. 2021;762:144165. doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.144165
  26. Slaughter E, Gersberg RM, Watanabe K, Rudolph J, Stransky C, Novotny TE. Toxicity of cigarette butts, and their chemical components, to marine and freshwater fish [published correction appears in Tob Control. 2011 Nov;20(6):418]. Tob Control. 2011;20 Suppl 1(Suppl_1):i25–i29. doi:10.1136/tc.2010.040170.
  27. Poma A, Vecchiotti G, Colafarina S, et al. In Vitro Genotoxicity of Polystyrene Nanoparticles on the Human Fibroblast Hs27 Cell Line. Nanomaterials (Basel). 2019;9(9):1299. Published 2019 Sep 11. doi:10.3390/nano9091299 doi:10.1021/acs.est.6b01441.
  28. Break Free From Plastic. Branded Vol. III Demanding corporate accountability for plastic pollution. Brand Audit 2020. Published 2020. Accessed July 10, 2024. https://brandaudit.breakfreefromplastic.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/BFFP-Brand-Audit-Report-2020.pdf
  29. Levy DT, Pearson JL, Villanti AC, Blackman K, Vallone D, Abrams D. Modeling the future effects of a menthol ban on reduced smoking prevalence and deaths averted in the United States. Am J Public Health. 2011;101(7):1236-1240
  30. Truth Initiative. Why tobacco is a racial justice issue. Published August 3, 2020. Accessed July 10, 2024. https://truthinitiative.org/research-resources/targeted-communities/why-tobacco-racial-justice-issue
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  33. Ling, Pamela. Big Tobacco is Exploiting AAPI Youth for Profit. Here’s How. The Filipino American Post. 27 January 2024. https://thefilipinoamericanpost.com/big-tobacco-is-exploiting-aapi-youth-for-profit-heres-how/
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