Our History of Advocacy

1976 

Local GASPs from Southern and Northern California merge and incorporate as California GASP (Group Against Smoking Pollution).

1977 

Proposition 5, California State Initiative Campaign, launched for statewide clean indoor air law. Berkeley passes first local clean indoor air ordinance.

1978 

Proposition 5 defeated by a $6 million tobacco industry campaign.

1979 

Second try at a state initiative, California Proposition 10, similar to Proposition 5, is launched. 1980 Proposition 10 narrowly defeated by the tobacco industry. Tobacco industry spent more than $10 million to defeat Propositions 5 and 10.

1981 

California GASP becomes Californians for Nonsmokers’ Rights (CNR). CNR shifts focus to passing local clean indoor air ordinances.

1982

CNR publishes first issue of UPDATE. The California Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation is formed and frees the British documentary Death in the West from censorship in England by Philip Morris.

1983

CNR campaigns for historic workplace smoking ordinance in San Francisco. The tobacco industry forces a referendum against the ordinance, Prop. P, which CNR defeats. CNR publishes the Death in the West Curriculum Guide, created in cooperation with the Lawrence Hall of Science RAY:S prevention program.

1984 

CNR runs campaign for strong workplace ordinance in Los Angeles. CNR helps defeat an industry referendum against a Fort Collins, Colorado ordinance. The CNR Foundation begins the Workplace Smoking Program.

1985 

CNR’s local smoking ordinance campaign takes off, with the passage of over 30 ordinances in California and dozens across the country. A Smokefree Workplace is published to assist employers and employees implementing workplace policies.

1987

ANR’s grassroots campaign for the airline smoking ban concludes with Congress’ passage of a smoking ban on flights of two hours or less. ANR’s Model Smoking Ordinance takes off around the country as local policy makers respond to the Surgeon General’s 1986 Report on Involuntary Smoking.

1988

ANR holds Flight Attendant Conference in Chicago. Campaign begins for smoking ban on all domestic airline flights - flight attendants play a critical role. New York City passes ANR’s model ordinance.

1989

Congress adopts smoking ban on all domestic flights. ANR is the only advocacy group cited in the Congressional Record as "particularly active."

ANR produces Major Local Smoking Ordinances in the U.S., A Detailed Matrix of the Provisions of Workplace, Restaurant, and Public Places Smoking Ordinances, published by the National Cancer Institute (NCI). 

ANR holds national conference for grassroots nonsmokers’ rights groups, held at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

1990

ANR counters tobacco industry attempts to subvert the EPA Risk Assessment on environmental tobacco smoke. In its draft report, an EPA Scientific Advisory Board declares tobacco smoke a Class A carcinogen.

1990 marks the beginning of the end of separate sections, as local policy makers adopt ANR’s new Model 100% Smokefree Ordinance.

San Luis Obispo (CA) passes first smokefree bar ordinance in the country.

1991

The ANR Foundation's TAT program expands, training over 500 teenagers and reaching over 3,400 younger children.

ANR helps local coalitions launch a wave of smokefree ordinances in California. This smokefree trend eventually spreads to communities across the country.

1992

ANR Co-Director is a plenary speaker at the 8th World Conference on Smoking and Health, in Argentina.

ANR sponsors a national leadership conference, Tobacco Control in the 90s.

ANR Foundation co-founds Women and Girls Against Tobacco (WAGAT).

1993

In January, the EPA releases its final risk assessment on ETS. ANR’s 2nd monograph on tobacco control ordinances is published by NCI. By the end of the year, more than 100 communities have adopted ANR’s Model 100% Smokefree Ordinance.

Davis (CA) passes the first comprehensive law making all workplaces, including restaurants and bars, 100% smokefree.

ANR intervenes in court to successfully defend Los Angeles’ new smokefree restaurant ordinance against a referendum attempt sponsored by Philip Morris.

1994

ANR launches grassroots campaign supporting the federal Smoke-Free Environment Act (HR 3434). ANR sues the State of California to recover illegally-diverted Prop. 99 tobacco education funds.

ANR co-sponsors a national conference, Women United Against Tobacco, in Washington, D.C. Former Surgeon General Antonia Novello is the keynote speaker.

ANR plays key role in defeat of California’s Prop. 188, the Philip Morris (PM) Initiative, forcing PM to disclose its sponsorship of Prop. 188 on radio and TV ads via a petition with the Federal Communications Commission.

1995

ANR returns to court to defend California’s Prop. 99 tobacco education funds.

ANR develops the week-long Clean Indoor Air Policy class for the CDC, Office on Smoking and Health’s annual Summer Institute on Tobacco Control.

ANR launches www.no-smoke.org, the first website dedicated to nonsmokers' rights.

1996

To refocus attention on clean indoor air, ANR launches its Back to Basics program, which trains advocates to pass local smokefree ordinances. ANR’s guidebook on passing local ordinances, Clearing the Air, is published and hailed by former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop as “superb! ...all the required nuts and bolts to enable passage of local clean indoor air laws.”

Tobacco industry steps up efforts to eliminate local ordinances, promoting weak, preemptive state laws in over 20 states. ANR launches the National Preemption Project to help activists in states fighting preemption. The project sponsors a National Conference on Local Control. As a result, the enactment of industry-sponsored preemption bills rapidly declines.

ANR coordinates a grassroots campaign for full funding of Prop. 99 education programs. For the first time ever the Governor and Legislature provide full funding for health education and research programs mandated under Prop. 99.

ANR learns about and "crashes" secret meeting between architects of the "global settlement" and CEO's of health groups that would have immunized the Industry from individual and/or state lawsuits.

ANR launches campaign to prevent immunity for Big Tobacco via a "global settlement." American Lung Association and others join the Save Lives not Big Tobacco coalition. ANR runs series of ads educating the public and lawmakers about Big Tobacco's devious plans to immunize themselves against any legal liabilities.

1997

ANR is invited to serve on the Koop/Kessler Advisory Committee on Tobacco Policy and Public Health, formed to advise Congress and the White House as they consider (and eventually reject) a “global settlement” proposed by the tobacco industry and the Attorneys General to grant the industry legal immunity.

ANR Foundation produces Fighting Back: Communities Beating Big Tobacco. The award-winning video is aired on public and cable television and is used by local coalitions across the country.

ANR Foundation creates Tobacco Industry Tracking Database  to help coalitions, elected officials, and the media to "connect the dots" between local opposition tactics and Big Tobacco.

ANR exposes Philip Morris (PM) campaign to rollback California's smokefree bar implementation developed by their public relations firm Burston-Marsteller at press conference in Sacramento.

Thomas Humber, President and CEO of the National Smokers' Alliance, PM's front group, sends funeral lilies to ANR with card reading, "Thank You."

1998

Communities passing the first smokefree ordinances in the Back to Basics states of Michigan, Oregon and Maine turn to ANR for more help as the industry responds with referenda and lawsuits. With ANR’s help, coalitions in Corvallis (OR) and Portland (ME) win resounding victories.

ANR and American Heart Association run ad asking “Don’t all workers deserve smokefree workplaces? The law says yes. Big Tobacco says no.,” urging California Governor Pete Wilson to take action to alert the public that bars will be smokefree.

ANR files an amicus brief to defend Marquette's (MI) ordinance against a preemption suit.

1999

Back to Basics trainings have been held in 19 states, leading to adoption of 46 smokefree ordinances.

As 2000 approaches, ANR sponsors a 2nd national leadership conference, The State of the Movement.

ANR Foundation’s 3rd monograph on local tobacco control ordinances is in press for publication by the NCI as the year draws to a close.

ANR Foundation releases "The National Smokers Alliance: Exposed– A Report on the Activities of Philip Morris' #1 Front Group," which exposes them as an 'astroturf' organization created and funded by Big Tobacco to protect its profits.

2000

ANR helps to prevent the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) from developing separate standards for the hospitality industry because ventilation does not remove the risk of disease and death due to secondhand smoke. ANR also exposes ties between Philip Morris and the Hospitality Coalition on Indoor Air Quality (HCIAQ) whose stated goal is to “render further regulation unnecessary.”

ANR helps return two American Legacy Foundation ads to the air which had been pulled after pressure from Philip Morris and North Carolina Attorney General Michael Easley. Web versions of the television ads, "Body Bags" and "Lie Detector" were placed on ANR's website in the two months that they were off the air.

ANR Foundation releases Hollywood on Tobacco, a broadcast length documentary that grapples with the question of smoking in the movies — why it's there, who makes the decisions, and who has influence on those decisions.

2001

ANR receives award from the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) in recognition of "outstanding contribution to tobacco control," and for efforts resulting in "the increasing number of smokefree ordinances in communities throughout the United States."

ANR staff testifies in New York City against "smoking rooms" and the creation of a "Ventilation Task Force."

ANR Foundation's Local Tobacco Control Ordinance Database, a one-of-a-kind depository of local tobacco control ordinances from municipalities throughout the United States reaches the 2000 municipality mark. 206 of these municipalities, representing 14% of the U.S. population or 39,587,035 people, are 100% smokefree laws.

ANR helps defend smokefree law in Minot, North Dakota during referenda challenge.

ANR Foundation Executive Director receives the Innovator's Combating Substance Abuse Program Award for her leadership and vision in reducing nonsmokers' exposure to secondhand smoke and exposing tobacco industry interference.

2002

ANR co-authors Fundamentals of Clean Indoor Air Policy, a document stating the recommended guiding principles for developing and implementing effective clean indoor air campaigns.

ANR and American Heart Association Western States Affiliate run ad, “Gray Davis gives corporate pushers the license to kill,” warning the public about Davis' plans to cut the state tobacco control program’s budget by half; increase cigarette taxes without earmarking any for tobacco prevention; and borrow against the state’s future Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) payments.

ANR/F Executive Director gives plenary presentation and meets with members of New Zealand Parliament to help pass the national smokefree law.

ANR co-founder, Past Board President and current staff member, Peter Hanauer, receives the American Lung Association and Dr. C. Everett Koop Foundation's "Unsung Hero" award which "honors the stalwarts of the tobacco control movement whose work is frequently unrecognized."

ANR's smokefree airports campaign helps protect the smokefree status of Los Angeles International, Detroit Metro, Boston Logan, and Dallas/Ft. Worth airports.

ANR Foundation's Tobacco Industry Tracking Database is made available worldwide via the web.

ANR Foundation rolls out new restaurant and hospitality project, To the Health of Your Business, designed for use by coalitions in the United States and internationally to educate the hospitality industry about the benefits of being smokefree.

ANR/F conducts a total of 39 Back to Basics trainings in 26 states since 1996.

2003

ANR Foundation launches new web site to help advocates prevent preemption and protect local control (www.protectlocalcontrol.org).

ANR develops the Policymaker Advisory Network to connect local elected officials considering smokefree laws with those who have lived through these campaigns to share experiences and advice.

ANR signs on to an amicus brief to protect Helena, Montana's strong comprehensive ordinance; ANR also signs onto an amicus brief to protect local authority for Boards of Health in West Virginia to pass smokefree regulations.

ANR helps protect Pueblo, Colorado's strong comprehensive ordinance during two referenda campaigns.

2004

ANR helps to protect and defend smokefree ordinances in groundbreaking communities such as an opposition referendum against Fayetteville's ordinance and a legal attack against Lexington's comprehensive ordinance.

ANR targets more than 30 representatives of the air filtration industry regarding its misleading ad campaigns, and successfully changes the marketing practices of several companies including the industry leader, The Sharper Image.

By May, 1719 communities have a clean indoor air law; 300 communities and nine states have 100% smokefree laws protecting more than 32% of the U.S. population from secondhand smoke.

ANR launches Smokefree Meetings campaign, encouraging organizations to hold meetings in smokefree cities, or smokefree venues at a minimum.

2005

ANR celebrates 15 years of smokefree flights.

Senator Richard Durbin joins ANR at a reception in Chicago on May 4 to commemorate this historic event and celebrate the courageous flight attendants and ANR for helping make the airlines smokefree.

ANR becomes one of six public health interveners in the Department of Justice (DOJ) RICO suit against the tobacco industry for defrauding the public for 50 years with regard to the health effects of cigarette smoking and exposure to secondhand smoke.

ANR's campaign to "clear the air" about ventilation and air purifiers achieves a significant victory when the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air Conditioning Engineers, (ASHRAE) Board of Directors adopts a position, stating that ventilation and other air filtration technologies cannot eliminate all of the health risks caused by secondhand smoke exposure.

2006

March 1: ANR celebrates 30 years of advocacy for smokefree air.

On June 2, the U.S. Surgeon General releases a report on the health consequences of secondhand smoke, stating “there is no ‘risk-free’ level of exposure, and ventilation does not work.” ANR is cited multiple times throughout the report and most significantly in Chapter 10.

By August 28, 65 new or amended local and 4 state smokefree laws are passed. Now more than 2,300 communities have a clean indoor air law; almost 500 cities and 17 states and Puerto Rico have a 100% law protecting 45.4% of the U.S. Population.

Tobacco industry is found guilty in the DOJ’s RICO case. Process of obtaining remedies in the case begins, with input from Intervenors, including ANR.

Massive attack on nonsmokers’ rights to breathe clean, smokefree air at the ballot box by tobacco industry; nonsmokers’ victorious in AZ, OH, and NV.

2007

ANR spearheads the Smokefree Casino Taskforce, inviting partners and advocates to join in the fight to bring smokefree air to casinos and other gaming environments.

ANR awards casino worker Vinny Rennich its Smokefree Hero award for his courageous fight for a smokefree workplace and his leadership advocating for smokefree casino legislation in NJ.

ANR organizes a National Smokefree Rally in Minneapolis, MN.

2008

January 1: France goes 100% smokefree.

We celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Smokefree Skies!

San Francisco passes first tobacco-free pharmacies law; Philip Morris sues, and loses.

2009

With encouragement from ANR, the National Council of Legislators from Gaming States (NCLGS), adopts a resolution supporting 100% smokefree gaming.

NIOSH releases report after investigating three Las Vegas casino worker complaints filed in 2005 about hazardous working conditions in casinos; report recommends 100% smokefree casinos.

Richmond, CA excels in smokefree protections by passing strong indoor and outdoor law, as well as a 100% smokefree multi-unit housing law.

President Obama signed the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act into law on June 22nd. The law gives the U.S. Food and Drug Administration the authority to regulate the manufacturing, marketing, and sale of tobacco products

The FDA releases concerns about the safety of Electronic or e-cigarettes; ANR supports inclusion of e-cigarettes as smoking device in all smokefree policies and laws.

2010

North Carolina’s smokefree workplace and restaurant law goes into effect.

Cheryl Rose, a non-smoking casino worker, loses her battle against lung cancer. ANR uses World No Tobacco Day to draw attention to plight of female casino workers who continue to be unfairly exposed to SHS in their workplaces.

Wisconsin’s smokefree workplace, restaurant and bar law takes effect.

Munich’s Oktoberfest goes 100% smokefree.

South Dakota voters uphold 100% smokefree statewide law which includes Deadwood casinos.

U.S. Surgeon General releases another report on the Biology of Cancer, affirming the hazardous nature of secondhand smoke exposure and the benefits of smokefree environments.

2011

ANR Legislative Hero, Senator Frank Lautenberg, supports the Department of Transportation’s move to prohibit the use of electronic cigarettes on airplanes.

ANR celebrates 35 years of advocacy for nonsmokers’ rights and smokefree air.

ANR completes a documentary on secondhand smoke & casinos titled Fighting For Smokefree Air: Secondhand Smoke in Casinos.

ANR organizes the first ever National Smokefree Gaming Symposium May 9-11th in Las Vegas, Nevada.

2012

Indiana Governor signs limited statewide smokefree law that leaves many workers, including Indiana’s bar and casino workers, unprotected.

ANR releases a video series of vignettes of casino workers and advocates speaking out about secondhand smoke in casinos.

2013

Now 24 states, along with the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, have a law in effect that requires non-hospitality workplaces, restaurants, and bars to be 100% smokefree. These laws, along with local laws in other states, protect 48.9% of the U.S. population.

2014

Nathan Moose, never-smoker, smokefree advocate and casino worker, loses his battle with cancer. ANR renews promise to fight for Nathan and thousands more like him.

The growth of electronic cigarettes emerges as a new challenge. Questions exist about the dangers of exposure to secondhand e-cigarette aerosol. Preliminary studies demonstrate potential dangers. ANR mounts an effort to ensure that the use of electronic cigarettes is prohibited wherever smoking is prohibited, including a campaign for the U.S. Department of Transportation to ban their use on airplanes.

2015

New Orleans City Council votes 7-0 to enact a strong smokefree law to cover all bars and casinos in New Orleans. The historic victory for smokefree air also prohibited the use of electronic cigarettes in all smokefree areas.

ANR celebrates the 25th anniversary of smokefree skies.

HUD announces that it will require all public housing nationwide to have a smokefree policy.

2016

ANR celebrates 40 years of advocacy for smokefree air.

The fight for smokefree air continues with close to half of the country still without strong smokefree protections. ANR continues to move forward, working with communities, states, tribal nations and US territories and commonwealths, to ensure everyone’s right to breathe 100% smokefree air.

Salt Lake City International Airport goes smokefree.

California expands smokefree protections by removing most exemptions from thestate smokefree workpace law, and includes e-cigarette use in the definition of smoking.

2017

U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) implements a smokefree public housing rule requiring more than 3,100 Public Housing Agencies (PHAs) in the U.S. to implement smokefree policies for their public housing properties.  ANR serves a crucial role in connecting PHAs and advocates with the resources they need to implement the rule.

2018      

Baton Rouge, LA adopts a smokefree bars and casinos law, following the lead of New Orleans. These municipalities are the only two local smokefree casino laws in the U.S.

Augusta, Georgia board of Commissioners vote to enact a strong smokefree law to cover all bars and restaurants in the city.

2019

Emeryville, CA becomes the 50th municipality to adopt a 100% smokefree multi-unit housing law.

Ho-Chunk Gaming Madison shows strong leadership by prohibiting e-cigarette use on their property after celebrating 3 years as a 100% smokefree property.

The Moose Fraternity service organization voted in favor of requiring all Moose lodges to be 100% smokefree indoors.

2020

The City of Atlanta  goes smokefree, making all restaurants, bars, hotels, music venues and the Hartsfield-Jackson Airport goes smokefree. The percent of Georgia’s population protected from exposure to secondhand smoke increased from 4.6% to 9.1%, and other neighboring cities initiated campaigns as a result.

New Orleans celebrates 5 years of smokefree bars, restaurants, and casinos.

Savannah, GA celebrates 10 years of smokefree workplaces, bars, and restaurants.

Austin, TX celebrates 15 years of smokefree workplaces, restaurants, bars, and music venues.

As a result of strong leadership of sovereign Tribes, more than 200 casinos implemented new smokefree policies in response to COVID-19.

Park MGM on the Las Vegas Strip goes smokefree.

February 25, 2020 marked the 30th anniversary of smokefree skies.

2021

ANR celebrates 45 years of advocacy. Millions of people are protected from secondhand tobacco smoke and e-cigarette vapor in a wide variety of workplaces, including bars and casinos - venues we would have never imagined in 1976. Despite tremendous success supporting nonsmokers’ rights to breathe clean, healthy, smokefree air, nearly 40% of the population is still exposed to secondhand smoke. New threats like legalized recreational marijuana and the push for social clubs that permit indoor, onsite marijuana smoking an vaping could rollback our hard won efforts to clear the air of all forms of indoor air pollution. 

The fight for smokefree air continues with still half of the country without strong smokefree protections. ANR continues to move forward, working with communities, states, tribal nations and US territories and commonwealths, to ensure everyone’s right to breathe 100% smokefree air.