Author: Mark Gottlieb

Mark Gottlieb joined the staff of the Public Health Advocacy Institute in 1993 after graduating from Northeastern University School of Law. His efforts have focused on researching tobacco litigation as a public health strategy as director of the Tobacco Products Liability Project, reducing the harm caused by secondhand tobacco smoke through a variety of legal and policy approaches, fostering scholarship using tobacco industry documents, and, more recently, examining legal and policy approaches to address obesity. He is the Executive Director of the Institute and lives in Cambridge, MA with his wife and three children.

Top Boston Firms Join Forces with Public Health Advocacy Institute

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact:  Mark Gottlieb or Andrew Rainer  617-373-2026 In March, the non-profit Public Health Advocacy Institute (“PHAI”) announced that it had formed a center to bring important public health litigation, and had hired a former Assistant Attorney General to oversee this litigation in the Massachusetts courts.  Today, PHAI, which is based at Northeastern […]

Stop & Shop Responds to PHAI’s Demands to Prevent Sales of Scratch Tickets to Kids

In 2014 and 2015, the Public Health Advocacy Institute (PHAI) conducted testing to determine whether kids could purchase lottery tickets from the vending machines located in a number of area supermarkets.  At markets in Cambridge, Somerville, and Arlington, Massachusetts, a teenage tester was easily able to purchase lottery tickets in every attempt. Massachusetts law expressly […]

Under An Hour: My Time at the 2015 Altria Group, Inc. Annual Shareholders Meeting

By Edward L. Sweda, Jr. There are 8,760 hours in any given year (excluding leap years). The management of Altria Group, Inc. used just under one of those 8,760 hours to conduct its 2015 Annual Shareholders’ Meeting at the Greater Richmond Convention Center in Richmond, Virginia on the morning of May 20th. The meeting began precisely […]

PHAI Mentioned in Boston Globe Article About Efforts to Prevent Underage Lottery Vending

In recent months, PHAI has worked with concerned parents and a national anti-predatory gambling group to address youth access to instant lottery tickets through unattended vending machines. Fears around easy access to scratch tickets by kids grew when we found that a 14-year-old was able to easily purchase tickets from lottery vending machines in supermarkets […]

R.J. Reynolds’ Shareholder’s Report from Winston-Salem: A “Good Year,” a Proposal to Merge and a Death Toll that Must Not Be Acknowledged

By Edward L. Sweda, Jr. Like clockwork, the 2015 Reynolds American (RAI) Annual Shareholders Meeting started precisely at 9:00 A.M. on Thursday May 7, 2015 at the company’s headquarters in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.  Seventy-five minutes later, the meeting was adjourned. Before I could attend the meeting, I had to proceed through intense security, with machines […]

PHAI’s Chris Banthin Quoted in Boston Globe Article on Smokefree Homes

The April 30th edition of the Boston Globe featured an article authored by correspondent Peter Keogh entitled: “The Plight of the Smoking Man.” The piece explained the difficulties that some smokers have faced in the wake of increasing restrictions on smoking, including in many multiunit residential buildings.  While the article spends some time exploring the […]

PHAI Submits Comments on Proposed Mass AG Regulations for E-Cigarettes

On April 23, 2015,  the  Public Health Advocacy Institute submitted the following written comments concerning proposed regulations for electronic cigarettes issued by Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey: April 23, 2015 Amber Villa, Assistant Attorney General Consumer Protection Division Office of the Attorney General One Ashburton Place Boston, MA 02108 Re: Massachusetts Attorney General Proposed Regulations of […]