Success Breeds Success

Audience:

The target audience for this presentation is tobacco control professionals working on policy change.

Key Points:

This presentation will demonstrate how North Carolina, the top tobacco-producing state, achieved tobacco-free campuses for public schools, hospitals, colleges and universities, and smoke-free bars and restaurants. In August, 2008, all 115 of North Carolina’s school districts were 100% tobacco-free. The schools’ success led to forty-five North Carolina community colleges, colleges and universities adopting similar policies. The NC Tobacco Prevention and Control Branch collaborated with state and local partners to achieve this. NC Prevention Partners received funding from The Duke Endowment in 2006 to help all 125 hospitals implement tobacco-free campus policies. By July 6, 2009, all NC hospital campuses were tobacco-free campus-wide, making North Carolina the first state to achieve this. North Carolina became the first southern state to pass a smoke-free restaurants and bars law in 2009. The year following, there was an average 21% decline in weekly emergency department visits for heart attacks. Businesses now better understand the cost of tobacco-using employees and are prohibiting tobacco on their properties. With assistance from NC Prevention Partners, LabCorps, a world-wide company headquartered in Burlington, NC, implemented tobacco-free policies at all their campuses in July of 2011.

Educational Experience:

Participants will learn from a panel of experts that were influential in tobacco-free policy implementation initiatives. The panel will share how to apply strategies in varying sectors to increase tobacco-free environments.

Benefits:

Learn the use of different health promotion strategies in achieving tobacco-free policies in schools, hospitals, bars and restaurants.