Rutgers Professor Appointed to FDA's Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee

Cristine Delnevo, director of the Rutgers Center for Tobacco Studies and a professor of Health Behavior, Society, and Policy at the Rutgers School of Public Health, has been appointed to serve on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee (TPSAC).

She will be one of nine voting members on the committee, which advises the FDA on regulating tobacco products. The four-year appointment will end on Jan. 31, 2025. 

Established in 2009, TPSAC reviews and evaluates safety, dependence and health issues related to tobacco products and provides advice, information and recommendations to the FDA's commissioner. The FDA commissioner selects the committee members from among people with expertise in medicine, medical ethics, science or technology involving the manufacture, evaluation or use of tobacco products.

"I have valued the importance of this FDA advisory committee since the signing of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act in 2009," said Delnevo. "I am thankful to those who served before me and look forward to working with an esteemed group of colleagues to help the FDA make regulatory decisions to protect public health and reduce tobacco-related morbidity and mortality."

Delnevo's expertise spans population-level tobacco behavior trends, particularly non-cigarette tobacco products like cigars and e-cigarettes, tobacco control policy and regulation, and survey methods research. She co-leads one of nine Tobacco Centers of Regulatory Science and has published extensively on tobacco-use behavior patterns. She co-authored chapters of the Epidemiology of Tobacco Use in 2012 and the 2014 Surgeon General Reports on Tobacco Use. She has also authored more than 200 scientific articles, reports and book chapters and serves as a senior associate editor for the journal Tobacco Regulatory Science.

"We're excited to have one of our own at Rutgers be part of an important committee like TPSAC," said Brian Strom, chancellor of Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences. "I'm confident that Dr. Delnevo will bring to this role her passion and commitment, which she has already exhibited at the Rutgers Center for Tobacco Studies, and will make decisions that will help save lives."

Delnevo is an advocate for health equity and the decline of youth tobacco use, especially in African-American communities across the United States.