Public Health in the Rockies 2026

Background / Purpose: The tobacco retail environment is a critical touchpoint for reducing youth tobacco and nicotine use and eliminating disparities. In Colorado, tobacco retailer licensing and compliance monitoring are managed by multiple agencies and published independently. The Tobacco Retail Access Colorado (TRAC) Dashboard integrates these disparate datasets into an interactive geospatial mapping application. TRAC empowers communities, especially those disproportionately impacted by tobacco harms, to visualize their local tobacco retail landscape and drive evidence-based change.

Methods: TRAC was developed by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s Tobacco Program through a participatory process with end-users, including Local Public Health Agencies (LPHAs), policy experts, and compliance inspectors. The dashboard integrates state tobacco licensing data with compliance checks from multiple agencies (federal, state, and local). Data are overlaid on a map with school locations, youth-serving facilities, and area-level sociodemographic indicators. The information can be viewed item-by-item or summarized at multiple geographic scales (municipal, county, multi-county collaborative region) to support everything from individual retailer education to jurisdiction-wide policy planning.

Results: TRAC increases data accessibility and visibility statewide. It is actively used by LPHAs and community partners to monitor compliance, uncover trends, and communicate with stakeholders. To ensure equitable access for jurisdictions with limited geospatial capacity, the tool is deployed alongside training and ongoing technical assistance.

Implications: Consolidating disparate data at multiple scales enables a more complete understanding of retailer behavior and strengthens local capacity for targeted monitoring, enforcement, and advocacy. By increasing transparency, public health professionals can implement actionable, equity-focused tobacco control strategies to protect youth.

Audience Engagement: To offer attendees a chance to experience the dashboard in action, this session will feature a live demonstration of the dashboard followed by a hands-on data-gathering exercise. Attendees will navigate the dashboard to extract jurisdictional metrics and brainstorm evidence-informed policy recommendations.