Warner Series: Smoke-free New Orleans

New Orleans' motto is "Laissez les bons temps rouler "- a Cajun expression meaning "Let the good times roll!". So how did this multicultural tourist destination known for good times become a smoke-free city? 

New Orleans presented more than a few challenges for community leaders and public health advocates interested in making the city's public spaces - including bars and casinos - smoke-free. Countless individuals worked hard for years to make the municipality one of the more than 700 U.S. cities that protect their citizens and visitors with a smoke-free ordinance banning smoking in bars, casinos and public places. 

On December 8 Truth Initiative hosted a Warner Series to learn how New Orleans took on secondhand smoke exposure by deeply involving its diverse citizens and explored how you can work with your communities to change local policy. The panel discussion will highlighted how diverse community leaders, public health advocates and local activists worked together to achieve a new law that will save the lives of visitors and residents of New Orleans. The panel discussion can be viewed in its entirety here: 

PROGRAM:

Welcome:

• Robin Koval, CEO/President, Truth Initiative

Panelists:

• Claudia Rodas, Director, Southern Region Tobacco Free Kids

• Tonia Moore MA, MSHCM, Louisiana Public Health Institute, Associate Director

• Jennifer Cofer, MPH, CHES, American Lung Association of the Southeast Vice President of Public Policy and Health Promotions

• David Dobbins, Truth Initiative (Moderator)