Land use planning and the control of alcohol, tobacco, firearms, and fast food restaurants.

We desired to understand how legal tools protect public health by regulating the location and density of alcohol, tobacco, firearms, and fast food retail outlets. We reviewed the literature to determine how land use regulations can function as control tools for public health advocates. We found that land use regulations are a public health advocacy tool that has been successfully used to lessen the negative effects of alcohol retail outlets in neighborhoods. More research is needed to determine whether such regulations are successful in reducing the negative effects of other retail outlets on community health.