Ann Houston Staples, CHESTobacco Prevention & Control

BranchNC Division of Public Health

Gillings School of Global Public HealthUniversity of North Carolina – Chapel Hill

The heavy lifting for this report was done by: Erin Bunger, Allie Lieberman,

Menaka Mohan, Lauren Toledo

Public Health Graduate Students

The Capstone Project

What was happening in NC?What did we do to respond to the

challenge?How did we measure it?What did we learn?

Overnight success?Full of folks who come from other

places?Not really “Southern”?

http://www.wral.com/news/local/video/6726055/

In both 2007 and 2009, a comprehensive smoke-free worksite, restaurants and bars bill was introduced. Both bills were weakened to cover restaurants and bars only. In 2007, an age-provision was added to

exempt many bars, and the bill failed narrowly in the House.

In 2009, a similar age-provision was added in the House, removed by the Senate, and the Senate bill was adopted by the House.

Bill was signed by Gov. Perdue and went into effect January 2, 2010

Very few exceptions: private clubs and country clubs that are non-profit and cigar bars open to 21-and-older.

In 2007 and 2009 Supportive Poll Data Strong Editorial Board Support Surgeon General’s Report Hands-Off Governor House Majority Leader and cancer

survivor as bill sponsor

Restaurant & Lodging Association Not Actively Supporting

More discussion of “local control”

More effort around LTEs rather than Op/Eds

Editorial support from nearly all major dailies

Restaurant & Lodging Association in Support

SHS Health Care Cost Study

Bi-Partisan Sponsorship

Hard work on supportive Op/Eds

Editorial Board Memos

We worked with the Capstone Team to try and determine what strategies might have made a difference in news coverage of the 2009 bill over the 2007 bill, and, ultimately, help with the passage.

What Worked?

Daily keyword search using Google News Alert and Tobacco.org about 2007 and 2009 Legislative sessions

Keywords: Smoking+NC, Tobacco+NC, Holliman

360 newspaper articles received: 2006-07: 91 2009: 269

357 daily newspaper articles included in the sample 2006-07: 97 2009: 260

Modified Sample Not relevant to House Bill 2 Message Board comments Press Release Multiple articles in one document

Identified Each article using the following categories: Type of Article - eg. News, Editorial, Letter to Editor,

Op-Ed, Column

Topics Mentioned (Codes) – eg. Holliman, Legislation, Secondhand Smoke

Sources of Quotes and Affiliations – eg. Public Health Leader, Restaurant and Bar owner

Point of View – eg. Pro-Bill, Anti-Bill, Neutral

For Opinion Articles: Frame – eg. Economic, Pro-Health, Personal Rights

Collapsing Codes Codes and Affiliations Related topic codes were combined into

8 main codes

Calculated frequencies and cross-tabulations

Tobacco Industry Legislation Setting and People Health Money Ideology Federal Initiatives Other

Pro-Bill

Anti-Bill

Neutral

Unsure

2007n=72

2009n=140

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%100%

Pro-Bill Anti-Bill Pro-Bill Anti-Bill

Point of View

% o

f Arti

cles

EditorialsLTEOp-edsColumn

2007 2009

Property RightsPersonal RightsEconomicFree MarketPro-HealthWorker HealthGovernment ProtectionUnsure

“Costs of Secondhand Smoke” Study based on the BCBS of Minnesota model

Developing a media committee/strategy that Follows news media and strategically plans

responses to misinformation and negative opinion writing.

Selects specific newspapers to place op/eds in, based on where legislative support is needed

Recruits strong local authors for op/eds and assists in writing and placing them (docs, LHD)

Distributes editorial board memos as needed

Have a Strategy for Dealing with “Property Rights” issue Bring Restaurant Association on-board Counter with strongest possible

argumentsFocus on strongest arguments

Reducing Health Effects of SHS Reducing Health Care Costs