Clean Air Council Awarded Grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to Reduce Tobacco Use in Pennsylvania By Focusing on Empowering Restaurant and Bar Workers to Advocate for Their Rights to a Smoke-Free Workplace

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Clean Air Council, a statewide nonprofit environmental health organization, announced today that it received a $44,699 grant to provide restaurant and bar workers with tools and strategies to advocate for their rights to breathe smoke-free air in the workplace. This initiative, focused for now in Montgomery, Dauphin, Cumberland, and Perry Counties, is one of 17 projects supported by Tobacco Policy Change: A Collaboration for Healthier Communities and States, a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF).

“This funding will allow the Council to bring together some of Pennsylvania’s over 350,000 restaurant and bar workers, including Latinos, African Americans, and other people of color who are disproportionately exposed to deadly secondhand smoke,” said Tim Kelly, Project Director. “Together with these workers, we will advocate for smoke-free workplace rights equal to those enjoyed by the vast majority of employees in other industries.”

“Latinos have higher rates of occupational exposure to secondhand smoke than the general population because they are more likely to work in the food services industry,” said Brad Gebhart, Program Coordinator with the Pennsylvania Association of Latino Organizations (PALO), a grant partner. “This project will give restaurant and bar workers, and Latino workers in particular, a voice in standing up for equal smoke-free workplace rights.”

While 40 years of tobacco control efforts have produced significant reductions in smoking, there continues to be a compelling need for advocacy and education efforts focused on the dangers of tobacco use and exposure. Each year tobacco use kills 440,000 Americans, and nearly 40,000 nonsmokers in this country die from lung cancer and heart disease due to secondhand smoke exposure.

Despite the fact that the food service industry is the nation’s largest employer other than the government, food service workers have the lowest level of protection against secondhand smoke. Restaurant workers are exposed to secondhand smoke levels up to 200 percent higher than workers in office settings, and bar workers are exposed to secondhand smoke levels two to three times higher than those of restaurant workers.
People of color in particular suffer higher levels of secondhand smoke exposure than the general population in part because they are disproportionately employed in the food service industry.

“It is vital that people who live and work in places hit hardest by tobacco-caused diseases have a say in making their communities healthier places to work and raise a family,” said Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, M.D., M.B.A., RWJF president and CEO. “The work of Clean Air Council reflects a focused, community-based approach targeted in areas that suffer disproportionately high rates of tobacco use, exposure to secondhand smoke and related diseases.”

Today’s announcement marks the second round of three one-year grant awards, which vary in range from $50,000 to $150,000. Including today’s grant announcements, Tobacco Policy Change: A Collaborative for Healthier Communities and States is providing up to $12 million in support of tobacco prevention and cessation policy initiatives, especially in those areas where tobacco continues to have its most devastating consequences.

For more information on this program and others supported by RWJF, visit www.rwjf.org.

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The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation focuses on the pressing health and health care issues facing our country. As the nation's largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to improving the health and health care of all Americans, the Foundation works with a diverse group of organizations and individuals to identify solutions and achieve comprehensive, meaningful and timely change. For more than 30 years the Foundation has brought experience, commitment, and a rigorous, balanced approach to the problems that affect the health and health care of those it serves. When it comes to helping Americans lead healthier lives and get the care they need, the Foundation expects to make a difference in your lifetime. For more information, visit www.rwjf.org.

Clean Air Council is a nonprofit environmental health and advocacy organization. Founded in 1967, the Council works through public education, community advocacy, and government oversight to implement projects in its five program areas, air, energy, transportation, waste, and children’s environmental health, and is dedicated to protecting everyone’s right to breathe clean air. For more information, visit www.cleanair.org.