A Half-Century of Defending Well being and Powering Change
Berkeley, CA — People for Nonsmokers’ Rights (ANR) and the ANR Basis introduced the launch of 50 Tales for 50 Years (#ANR50), a year-long storytelling marketing campaign marking 5 many years of advocacy for smokefree workplaces, public areas, and the appropriate of each particular person to breathe clear air.
The marketing campaign will unfold throughout ANR’s social media channels (Fb, Instagram, YouTube) all through 2026, spotlighting 50 people whose braveness, creativity, and dedication helped change legal guidelines, save lives, and shift the tradition round secondhand smoke. Common story options will look at what situations had been like earlier than ANR’s work and the way ANR and its companions modified lives and coverage.
Fifty Years within the Making
ANR was based on March 1, 1976, when a small group of advocates gathered in Berkeley, California, to pursue what was then a radical thought: indoor areas the place nobody smoked, the place everybody may breathe clear air. On the time, smoking was ubiquitous, individuals lit up in film theaters, workplaces, eating places, and on airplanes. There have been few restrictions, little analysis on the well being penalties of secondhand smoke, and no framework for shielding nonsmokers within the office.
These early founders “didn’t simply advocate for change—they created a blueprint for it,” in response to Cynthia Hallett, MPH, President and CEO of ANR. The influence of what they started is immense. As we speak as we be taught of the historic decreased smoking price (an all time low at 9.9%) tens of millions of lives have been saved from most cancers, coronary heart illness, emphysema, bronchial asthma, and different illnesses triggered or exacerbated by secondhand smoke. As we speak, 62.8 p.c of the U.S. inhabitants is protected by smokefree office legal guidelines presenting an unlimited change constructed over 50 years, and with many fingers, one ordinance at a time.
Story #1: Jamie Kent and Smokefree Tennessee
The marketing campaign launched with the story of Jamie Kent: musician, coalition chief, and a vivid instance of how one particular person’s advocacy can reshape coverage for 1000’s of employees. Watch the story and see the playlist for #ANR50!
For years, Tennessee musicians and hospitality employees had no smokefree protections on the job. Due to preemption, bars and music venues had been expressly excluded from state office well being legal guidelines. In 2020, ANR turned a founding accomplice of Musicians for a Smokefree Nashville, serving to educate native musicians and advocates on the best way to remove indoor smoking from Music Metropolis’s venues and bars. Jamie Kent emerged as a central chief of that effort, finally chairing Smokefree Tennessee.
ANR working alongside Jamie and his coalition produced historic outcomes. Nashville handed a complete smokefree ordinance in October 2022, adopted by Hendersonville, and most not too long ago Gallatin, Tennessee, the place the town council voted unanimously in February 2026 to shut a longstanding loophole and defend employees in 21+ institutions. Every of those victories required repealing state preemption, returning native management to communities, and organizing musicians and hospitality employees to inform their tales publicly.
“It means the world to our group to know Gallatin’s institutions are secure and welcoming,” Kent stated following the Gallatin vote. “I hope it evokes different cities throughout the state to do the identical.”
Jamie Kent’s story illustrates a core lesson from ANR’s 50 years of labor: private tales are highly effective, native leads the best way, and collaboration between skilled advocates and other people on the bottom produces outcomes that neither can obtain alone.
The Work Forward
ANR’s anniversary yr comes at a crucial second. Whereas progress over 5 many years has been extraordinary, 37.2 p.c of the U.S. inhabitants stays with out enough smokefree office protections. On line casino employees in New Jersey have waited greater than 20 years for a similar primary protections their colleagues in each different business have lengthy loved. Throughout the nation, the tobacco and on line casino industries, and now hashish and cigar business proponents, push again in opposition to smokefree legal guidelines, in search of exemptions and trying to renormalize indoor smoking.
“The struggle continues,” Cynthia Hallett, MPH, the President and CEO wrote in her fiftieth anniversary message. “We sit up for listening to your tales all through this milestone yr.”
How you can Observe the Marketing campaign
The 50 Tales for 50 Years marketing campaign shall be revealed commonly all through 2026. New tales will seem on ANR’s social channels, and by way of e-mail. Supporters can be a part of the dialog utilizing #ANR50, and take part by importing tales right here.
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People for Nonsmokers’ Rights (ANR), sister group to the ANR Basis, is a member-supported, non-profit advocacy group that has been working for 50 years, since 1976, to guard everybody’s proper to breathe unhazardous air in workplaces and public locations, from workplaces and airplanes to eating places, bars, and casinos. ANR has constantly shined a light-weight on the tobacco business’s interference with sound and life-saving public well being measures and has efficiently protected 62.8% of the inhabitants with native or statewide smokefree office, restaurant, and bar legal guidelines. ANR goals to create wholesome communities by closing remaining gaps in smokefree protections for employees in all workplaces, together with bars, music venues, casinos, and accommodations. For extra info, please go to nonsmokersrights.org and smokefreecasinos.org.
See a timeline of ANR’s 50 Years of Work
