Organized Labor,Public Health,and Tobacco Control Policy: A Dialogue toward Action

Abstract

An action-oriented conference, “Organized Labor, Public Health, and Tobacco Control Policy,” was held in September 2000 in Boston, Massachusetts. Labor union leaders, tobacco control and public health activists, researchers, and practitioners met for two days to: 1) learn about existing labor-based tobacco control initiatives; 2) educate one another about resources, barriers, and opportunities for labor-public health joint action on tobacco policy; 3) and identify where agendas overlap and form the basis for specific next steps in collaborative efforts in tobacco-related research, training, and advocacy. This report summarizes presentations and participant discussions to inform readers of the information exchanged and of the enthusiasm shared by conference participants—translated into a set of joint recommendations—for increased labor-based and joint labor-public health action to reduce the burden of tobacco on working people.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Ake

, Worksite Tobacco Control and Labor's Community Service Agency of San Diego, New Solutions, 6:4, pp. 75–76, 1996.

Blasetto

, Health Problems Related to Cigarette Smoke, New Solutions, 6:4, pp. 39–44, 1996.

Emmons

Youngstrom

, and Sorensen

, Unions and Tobacco Control: An Open Discussion, New Solutions, 6:4, pp. 77–80, 1996.

Levenstein

and Barbeau

, The Economics of Worksite Smoking Policies, New Solutions, 6:4, pp. 45–50, 1996.

Rosen

, A Public Employee Union's Experience in Addressing Smoking in the Workplace, New Solutions, 6:4, pp. 61–66, 1996.

Sorensen

, Organized Labor and Worksite Smoking Policies: Results of a Survey of Labor Leaders, New Solutions, 6:4, pp. 57–60, 1996.

Sorensen

and Youngstrom

, Smokefree or Free to Smoke? Labor's Role in Tobacco Control—Introduction to the Conference Proceedings, New Solutions, 6:4, pp. 31–38, 1996.

Williams

, Tobacco Policy—A Major Issue for Teachers, New Solutions, 6:4, pp. 73–74, 1996.

Willman

, Levels of Environmental Tobacco Smoke in Contemporary Office Workplaces, New Solutions, 6:4, pp. 67–72, 1996.

10.

Youngstrom

, Unions and Tobacco Control, New Solutions, 6:4, pp. 51–56, 1996.

11.

Anonymous, Finding Common Ground: How Public Health Can Work with Organized Labor to Protect Workers from Environmental Tobacco Smoke, National Association for Public Health Policy, Journal of Public Health Policy, 18:4, pp. 453–464, 1997.

12.

Barbeau

, Addressing Class-Based Disparities Related to Tobacco: Working with Labor Unions, Cancer Causes Control, 12, pp. 91–93, 2001.

13.

Barbeau

and Levenstein

, Feeling the Heat: Displaced Tobacco Workers in North Carolina, New Solutions, 9:1, pp. 65–80, 1999.

14.

Sorensen

Stoddard

Youngstrom

Emmons

Barbeau

Khorasanizadeh

, and Levenstein

, Local Unions' Positions on Worksite Tobacco Control, American Journal of Public Health, 90:4, pp. 618–620, 2000.

15.

Sorensen

Youngstrom

Maclachan

Emmons

, and Levenstein

, Labor's Position on Worksite Tobacco Control Policies: A Review of Arbitration Cases, Journal of Public Health Policy, 18:4, pp. 433–452, 1997.

16.

Goodman

, Webs of Drug Dependence: Towards a Political History of Tobacco, in Ashes to Ashes: The History of Smoking and Health. A symposium and witness seminar organized by the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine and the History of the Twentieth Century Medicine Group on 26–27 April 1995, Lock

Reynolds

L. A.

, and T. E. M. (eds.), Rodopi, Amsterdam, pp. 5–40, 1998.