Press Releases

Got Smoke-Free Policies?

For Immediate Release
January 12, 2004
Media Info / Jason Melancon
(504) 301-9841

Got Smoke-Free Policies?
New Orleans, LA

In recognition of the National Center for Disease Controls (CDC) Tobacco Free Awareness Week,” January 17-23, The Louisiana Campaign for Tobacco-Free Living (TFL) poses the question, Which Louisiana city will be the first to protect the public health and welfare of its citizens by adopting a smoke-free ordinance?

While many Louisiana office buildings and business owners are voluntarily making worksites smoke-free, Louisiana remains the only state in the Union without a single city that has adopted a smoke-free ordinance. As a result, one-third of all Louisiana workers remain unprotected from secondhand smoke by smoke-free policies; Hospitality Industry workers receive the least protection from the deadly effects of secondhand smoke.

In the U.S., restaurant employees have higher mortality rates than other occupational groups, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Many people only think about the effects (of smoking) on the individual smoking, but all people near a smoker are affected too,” said Cheryl Klein, North shore Regional Coordinator for TFL. Secondhand smoke is classified as a Group A carcinogen that causes an estimated 3,000 lung cancer deaths and accounts for up to 53,000 heart disease deaths each year among nonsmokers across the country. Every year, tobacco use costs Louisiana $1.2 billion in direct medical expenditures, raising the cost of health insurance for everyone.
Anyway you look at it smoke-free environments are a win-win for the public health of all Louisianians. Researchers at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo conducted air quality tests in 53 sites in seven major U.S. cities and found that indoor air pollution was an average of 82 percent lower in smoke-free cities. So what is keeping Louisiana cities from protecting its citizens from secondhand smoke?

The work of future Louisiana smoke-free cities is essentially about two things: health and responsibility in a democracy. For years the hazards of tobacco smoke had been known, but environmental approaches were not part of the prevention framework. While passing ordinances at the municipal level remains the best way to protect Louisiana citizens from secondhand smoke (from a public health perspective), The Louisiana Campaign for Tobacco-Free Living (TFL), along with the Louisiana Offices of Public Health, American Lung Association, and the American Cancer Society are now working together to address environmental approaches, such as community grants, designed to decrease the toll of tobacco on Louisianians.

The Louisiana Campaign for Tobacco-Free Living (TFL) is currently offering community and partnership grants applications to individuals and organizations across the state interested in developing or expanding programs designed to educate and protect Louisiana citizens from secondhand smoke at the environmental level. For more information about secondhand smoke, smoke-free environments, and granting opportunities, visit the TFL website at www.tobaccofreeliving.org, or call Cheryl Klein at 985-871-8353.

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