The legal term preemption may have little resonance outside of courts and legislative chambers. But what it describes — the invalidation of state law by federal law, or of local law by state law — has profound significance for public health.
Preemption affects everything from the quality of medical devices to the extent of tobacco advertising, from the presence of air bags in cars to the disclosure of ingredients in pesticides. In other words, preemption affects just about everything a public health professional does.
ChangeLab Solutions, in partnership with the Public Health Law Center at William Mitchell College of Law, has developed a series of fact sheets on preemption. You can download all four from this site.
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