Press

The Tobacco-Free Coalition has taken on a wide variety of policy efforts over the last two decades. Because the work of the Coalition is important and newsworthy, it often garners local and even national media attention. Media advocacy is also helpful in informing the public about the harms of tobacco products and the implementation of new policies to protect the public health. Attached are several examples of recent press stories related to the work of the San Francisco Tobacco-Free Coalition:

September 19th, 2018

  • “Big Tobacco is marketing vapes to our kids, so our city took them on and won — it’s the FDA’s turn now” -Tomás Aragón, MD, DrPH, Public Health Division Health Officer and Derek Smith, MSW, MPH Tobacco Free Project director, of SFDPH in the The Hill

September 12th, 2018

  • FDA threatens to pull Juul e-cigarettes off the market. SF Tobacco Free Coalition co-chair Bob Gordon comments on the matter in The Mercury News.

September 1st, 2018

  • Healthy Retails SF celebrated its 10th store with the re-opening of Sav-Mor Mart in the BayView which now stocks more fruits, vegetables,  and healthy snacks. The San Francisco BayView covered the re-opening event.

June 5th, 2018

  • San Francisco voters pass Proposition E, upholding the ban on the sale of flavored tobacco. This amends the SF health code by adding article 19Q. See coverage on the history of the new law: CNN, NYTimes, SF Chronicle.

April 24th, 2018

  • The California Department of Public Health’s CA Tobacco Control Program (CTCP) released a new campaign, the largest effort to date, targeting flavored tobacco products. Ad Week, Flavorshookkids.org

April 18th, 2017

  • Supervisor Malia Cohen introduced an ordinance to ban the sale of flavored tobacco products in San Francisco. An SF Tobacco Free Coalition member, Breath California, Golden Gate Public Health Partnership has been working on the issue through their Project E-NUFF since 2015. Breath California, SF Chronicle

March 8th, 2017

  • Did you know that it’s easier to buy grape cigarillos than grapes in San Francisco? Healthy Stores for a Healthy Community San Francisco press event featured Healthy Retail SF Program, youth and young adult data collectors, and food justice leaders/guardians and what they found through a survey of 250+ tobacco retail stores: SF Weekly , Sing Tao Daily,   KTVU

May 6, 2016

  • Governor Jerry Brown signs package of state tobacco bills that raise minimum age of purchasing tobacco products to 21, includes electronic cigarettes as tobacco products, closed second hand smoke loopholes, extends smoking prohibitions in schools to charter schools, and creates annual fee for selling tobacco products: SFGate, SF Chronicle, NPR, ABCNews

March 11, 2016

  • Board of Supervisors approve raising the minimum age of purchasing tobacco products to age 21: SFGate, CNN, SF Weekly, KRON4
  • State Senate and Assembly passes state bill to raise minimum age of purchasing tobacco products to 21: LA Times, Huffington Post, ABC7

April 30, 2015

  • Board of Supervisors unanimously approve ban on smokeless tobacco at ball parks, SF Examiner, SF Weekly.

March 23, 2015

  • California Department of Public Health launches e-cigarette education campaign including television ads


January 6, 2015

December 12, 2014

March 18, 2014

March 7, 2014

March 5, 2014

July 2, 2013