Building a comprehensive, open-access dataset of local tobacco control ordinances for every county and incorporated city in the United States, using AI-assisted search with a rigorous three-pass blind methodology and majority-vote reconciliation.
This is a comprehensive, open-access dataset of local tobacco control ordinances for every county and incorporated city in the United States. It records which jurisdictions have which types of tobacco laws, when they took effect, and links to source documents.
The dataset is built using AI-assisted web search with a rigorous three-pass blind methodology. Each jurisdiction is independently searched multiple times, and results are reconciled by majority vote to minimize errors. The goal is to provide researchers with free, jurisdiction-level tobacco policy data that can be used to construct population-weighted policy exposure measures for panel data analysis.
Policies are tracked at three levels — state, county, and jurisdiction — with inheritance flowing downward. At each level, independent AI agents conduct blind searches and results are reconciled by majority vote.
Statewide laws from the CDC STATE System: smokefree air, excise taxes, licensure, preemption, flavored tobacco bans.
Board of Supervisors ordinances. Tracks whether laws cover unincorporated areas only or the entire county including cities.
City/town council ordinances. Three-pass blind search with tiebreaker and majority-vote reconciliation.