Despite well-documented inequities in tobacco use for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender populations, there is little practical guidance for local public health officials on developing and implementing media campaigns that prioritize lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) communities. In this practice note article, we describe the development and lessons learned from a location-based media campaign to promote tobacco use cessation and raise awareness of QuitlineNC among lesbian and bisexual women in Western North Carolina. The campaign used a digital approach based on cell phone locations and marketing profiles to deliver messages across 4 years (2018–2021). Considerations for practitioners include how our project required messaging adaptation to meet Google’s restrictions against using the word “yours” and the importance of addressing privacy protection concerns with state officials to enable collection of outcome evaluation measures via a conversion pixel (code for capturing metrics).
OUTCOMES-INVITED COMMENTARY Commercial tobacco products have been protected from regulation, yet are designed to addict, are deadly, and are promoted to young people whose brains are not yet fully developed. Until everyone is protected from addiction and exposure, we must keep working toward fairness and valuebased policy, systems, and environmental change.
INTRODUCTION Smoke-free policies are effective in eliminating health hazards that can lead to chronic diseases and premature death. How hospitality businesses experience clean indoor air policies may provide leverage in States that have not adopted such policies. This study assessed whether North Carolina restaurants and bars receive complaints and/or experience benefits five years after implementation of the State's smoke-free law. METHODS A 2015 mail survey was used to assess problems, benefits, and voluntary policies (i.e., policies related to the use of electronic cigarettes indoors and outside smoke-free seating areas) among restaurant and bar owners/managers. The survey yielded 135 responses for a response rate of 20.3%. RESULTS The two most frequently selected benefits among respondents were customers breathing less tobacco smoke (65.2%) and fewer complaints about secondhand smoke (58.5%). The majority of restaurants (79.7%) and bars (71.4%) reported experiencing at least one benefit from the law. Restaurants were significantly more likely than bars to restrict the use of electronic cigarettes inside. No significant difference was found between restaurants and bars in smokefree outdoor customer areas. Bars were more likely to report problems with the smoke-free law (e.g. lack of outdoor space for smoking, compliance issues). CONCLUSIONS This study reveals successes of North Carolina's smoke-free law. The majority of respondents reported experiencing at least one benefit of the law and some reported that they had implemented additional voluntary policies. Learning more about how hospitality businesses experience smoke-free laws can help other states and communities deal with similar policy changes in the future.
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