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

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.