Public health prevails over preemption in South Carolina: How tobacco prevention advocates used science to secure smoke-free workplace laws

APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

3000.0: Monday, November 05, 2007 - 8:30 AM

Abstract #154108

Hellen F. Dekle, MEd¹, Mary-Kathryn Craft, MA¹, and Reneé Martin². (1) Division of Tobacco Prevention and Control, South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, 1777 St. Julian Place, Columbia, SC 29204, 803_545-4463, deklehe@dhec.sc.gov, (2) South Carolina Tobacco Collaborative, 440 Knox Abbott Drive, Suite 102, Cayce, SC 29033

South Carolina is one of the nation's top five tobacco-growing states with deep historical and cultural ties to the farming and tobacco production industries. In 2005, the crop yielded $70.2 million. Consequently, health advocates faced overwhelming resistance when promoting smoke-free workplace policies in their communities. Despite evidence of favorable public opinion to smoke-free workplace ordinances, local policymakers remained hesitant to address the issue arguing that the decision should be made at the state level. However, tobacco prevention advocates were able to successfully advance the 2006 Surgeon General's Report “The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke,” to leverage support and create a veritable domino effect of municipalities proposing and adopting smoke-free workplace laws. This presentation will demonstrate how advocates used the media to frame the need for smoke-free ordinances as a public health issue, recruited politically powerful champions and mobilized grassroots forces. Less than a month after the Surgeon General's Report was released, the first S.C. town passed a smoke-free workplace ordinance. In the seven months that followed, six municipalities including the state's three largest cities adopted smoke-free ordinances. Seven additional local governments currently are discussing ordinances. A bill for a statewide smoke-free workplace law was filed in both houses of the legislature.

Learning Objectives:

1. Recognize the major obstacles in promoting smoke-free workplace policies in South Carolina, a tobacco-growing state with preemption.
2. Identify strategies for garnering public support for and convincing policymakers to pass smoke-free ordinances.
3. Develop a science-based advocacy plan for smoke-free workplace ordinances.

Keywords: Tobacco Policy, Tobacco

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No
Any institutionally-contracted trials related to this submission?

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Smoke-Free Policies: Workplaces and Beyond

The 135th APHA Annual Meeting & Exposition (November 3-7, 2007) of APHA