The San Francisco Tobacco-Free Coalition
A retrospective on more than three decades of Coalition history and impact
About this Site
For decades, the San Francisco Tobacco-Free Coalition has worked to advance tobacco prevention policy and health equity in San Francisco and beyond. This page highlights the work of the Coalition from 1988-2023 through the voices of some of the many key players who have facilitated the Coalition’s success.
Before you begin please note:
- This is a stand-alone site, developed in 2024, that will not be updated. The San Francisco Tobacco-Free Project's homepage can be found here: https://www.sf.gov/san-francisco-tobacco-free-project
- The use of the term "tobacco" on this site refers to the commercial tobacco sold by the tobacco industry. The San Francisco Tobacco-Free Project and San Francisco Tobacco-Free Coalition respect and honor, and do not intend to restrict the sacred use of tobacco amongst tribal communities with traditional tobacco practices.
1. Our Coalition's Purpose
In 1988, California voters passed Proposition 99, a tax on tobacco products that provided unprecedented funding for tobacco prevention. Since then, the San Francisco Tobacco-Free Project, led by the local health department, has led tobacco prevention education and outreach, while the San Francisco Tobacco-Free Coalition, led by volunteers and community organizations, has mobilized policies that protect San Francisco community members from the harms of the tobacco industry.
Watch the video below to learn more about our Coalition's big-picture purpose and why Coalition members got involved.
2. Our Coalition's Impact
The San Francisco Tobacco-Free Coalition represents the very best of community coming together. It’s a group that brings their hearts and minds and community connections to the table, spending time dreaming, and then planning, to create a better world together.
The San Francisco Tobacco-Free Coalition has been extremely impactful on local tobacco policy, cultural norms, community mobilization, and community empowerment. Moreover, tobacco prevention work in San Francisco has paved the path for similar efforts at the state and national levels. Watch the video below to learn more about our Coalition's impact.
Impact of the San Francisco Tobacco-Free Coalition
3. Shifting Power to Communities
Linking tobacco with other issues that communities are concerned about is going to be the best use of our power, our vision, our resources, and resonate the most with communities.
Overview of the Community Action Model
Central to the San Francisco Tobacco-Free Coalition’s work is the Community Action Model (CAM). CAM is rooted in the work of Paulo Freire , who integrated educational practice with liberation from oppressive conditions.
Via CAM, community members engage in skill-building, research, and advocacy on community issues that they care about through a five-step process. Many San Francisco CAM projects have led to long-lasting policy change. Watch the video below for an example.
The Community Action Model: Elevating the voices of community members in tobacco-related policies
So much of the time, people are telling youth what they need, or how to fix something, or what the issue is. CAM is about you—you get to decide what you care about, how you approach the situation, how you want to work together to respond to the issue at hand.
Central to CAM is community leadership. CAM trains and ensures community members are compensated for their work and that their lived experience is valued. CAM participants are empowered to make positive changes in their communities, while building transferable skills that last a lifetime. Watch the videos below to learn more about how CAM builds community leadership.
The Community Action Model: Investing in and building community leaders
Browse the photo galleries below to hear about the impact of CAM on participants in their own words.
4. Major Coalition Milestones
The Coalition has helped San Francisco advance several local policies to protect residents from predatory tobacco industry tactics and secondhand smoke/vapor exposure. In many cases, these local tobacco prevention policies have paved the way for subsequent state and federal policies. Scroll through the timeline below to learn more, or jump to a specific milestone that interests you, using the list below.
- 1994: Smoke-free Workplaces
- 1997: Engaging on a Global Scale
- 1998: The Master Settlement Agreement
- 1998: Implementing Smoke-free Bars
- 2003: Requiring a Permit for Tobacco Sales
- 2005: Smoke-free Parks
- 2008: Restriction on Tobacco Products & Promotions at Bars and Clubs
- 2008: Tobacco-free Pharmacies
- 2010: Expanded Secondhand Smoke Protections
- 2010: Progress on Smoke-free Multi-unit Housing
- 2013: Healthy Food Retailer Incentives Ordinance
- 2013: Smoke-free Outdoor Events
- 2014: Tobacco Density Reduction
- 2016: Increasing the Minimum Age for Tobacco Product Sales
- 2017: Ban on the Sale of Flavored Tobacco Products
- 2019: Ban on the Sale of E-cigarettes
1994: Smoke-free Workplaces
The Coalition helped make workplaces in San Francisco smoke-free, protecting employees from the harms of secondhand smoke. Watch the video to learn more.
1997: Engaging on a Global Scale
Recognizing tobacco prevention as a global health equity issue, the Coalition made early ties with tobacco prevention partners across the globe through international summits and intercambios (exchange programs). Watch the video to learn more about how the Coalition engaged globally.
1998: The Master Settlement Agreement
From lawsuits paid out by the tobacco industry, the Coalition successfully advocated for $1M per year, for 25 years, providing critical support for local tobacco prevention funding. Watch the video to learn more.
1998: Implementing Smoke-Free Bars
Though smoke-free workplace policies made bars smoke-free in theory, implementation was much more challenging. Watch the video to learn how the Coalition helped make implementation happen.
2003: Requiring a Permit for Tobacco Sales
Prior to 2003, any store could sell tobacco. Adding a permit requirement and annual fee to sell tobacco allowed San Francisco to regulate tobacco sales, which has been critical in preventing and enforcing underage sales to youth.
2005: Smoke-free parks
The Coalition helped make San Francisco green spaces, including parks, squares, gardens, sports, and playing fields, free of smoke and toxic waste.
2008: Restriction on Tobacco Product Promotions at Bars and Clubs
The Coalition helped stop bars and clubs from being able to hand out free tobacco products to customers, while also making sure that loopholes (such as parking a smoking bus in front of a club) were not allowed.
2008: Tobacco-free Pharmacies
Prior to 2008, you could purchase cigarettes in San Francisco pharmacies. Watch the video to learn how the Coalition helped make pharmacies health promoting and tobacco-free.
2010: Expanded secondhand smoke protection
The Coalition was key to restricting smoking in outdoor dining areas, near building entryways, in waiting lines, at farmers markets, and other community spaces.
2010: Progress on Smoke-free Multi-Unit Housing Begins
Smoke-free multi-unit efforts in San Francisco have achieved some notable wins. These include prohibition of smoking in common areas of multi-unit housing building in 2010, as well as a 2013 citywide "disclosure" policy that allows tenants to receive information about the smoking status of their and neighboring units before entering a rental agreement. As of mid-2024, the movement to protect people from secondhand smoke and vapor in their units/homes continues. Learn more in the video.
2013: Healthy Food Retailer Incentives Ordinance
Recognizing that providing retailers with physical equipment, technical assistance, and community support to sell healthy food products (and therefore less tobacco), the Coalition helped advance the win-win collaboration between the health department and small business owners. This work led to a City and County program called " Healthy Retail SF " that involves collaboration between the community, the San Francisco Department of Public Health, the city's Office of Economic and Workforce Development, and small business consultants. Learn more by watching the video.
2013: Smoke-free Outdoor Events
A CAM youth-led campaign helped San Francisco move toward a policy to make most outdoor events, such street fairs, athletic events, performances, competitions, arts and crafts events, and food events smoke-free.
2014: Tobacco Density Reduction
Keeping heavily impacted neighborhoods from becoming even more saturated with tobacco retail and marketing is key to an equitable tobacco prevention approach. Learn more below about how Youth Leadership Institute, a Community Action Model project, worked on this crucial equity issue.
2016: Increasing the Minimum Age for Tobacco Product Sales
The Coalition helped to shepherd a San Francisco policy to increase the consumer age at which retailers can legally sell tobacco products. The policy shifted the legal consumer age from 18 to 21 years.
2017: Ban on the Sale of Menthol and Flavored Tobacco Products
SF was one of the first cities in the nation to ban the sale of flavored tobacco products, including menthol products, making it harder for the tobacco industry to hook San Franciscans, and especially youth. Moreover, when tobacco lobbyists tried to undo San Francisco's flavors policy via Proposition E, the Coalition mobilized community members to vote and successfully uphold the ban. Learn more about the fight against flavors by watching the video.
2019: Ban on the Sale of E-cigarettes
SF was the first major city in the nation to ban the sale of electronic cigarettes without FDA pre-market approval. When the tobacco industry tried to reverse the policy through a local proposition, the Coalition kicked into gear to educate voters, and the policy was successfully upheld. Learn more about this milestone by watching the video.
5. Visioning for the future
Building on its impactful past, the San Francisco Tobacco-Free Coalition continues to push for a more equitable, just, and healthy world. Watch the video below to hear about Coalition's members hopes for the future (as of early 2024), advice, and an invitation to join the Coalition family!
Visioning for the Future: The San Francisco Tobacco-Free Coalition
We can no longer be individualized. We must, must, must never do anything alone...Find somebody else who wants to advocate with you, and then do it in a group process. You don't need 30 people,but you do need about six in order to make a greater impact. But if at least you get three, no longer do we walk as me. We need to walk as we.
6. Additional resources
This website is a retrospective project celebrating the San Francisco Tobacco-Free Coalition's history. If you're looking for resources related to tobacco prevention, quitting smoking, or other related topics, below are additional resources.
Resources about tobacco-free efforts in San Francisco
Resources about tobacco retail in San Francisco
Resources to support tobacco cessation
Information about the statewide campaign to end tobacco damage now
Acknowledgements
The San Francisco Tobacco-Free Project would like to give a special thanks to all past and present Tobacco-Free Project staff and Coalition members for all their work. We would also like to thank the many individuals who contributed their time and expertise to this Coalition Retrospective, including:
Expert Interviewees
- Thank you to Brian Davis, Bob Gordon, Alyonik Hrushow, Calyn Kelley, Susana Hennessey Lavery, Carol McGruder, Randy Uang, and Tonya Williams for participating in interviews, reviewing site content, and contributing photos and videos from the Coalition's history.
Community Action Model (CAM) Leaders
- Thank you to our current and former CAM experts for contributing photos and testimonials to our site: Angel Benjamin, Sarah Chavez, Jaclyn Cheves, Nardos Darkera, Avni Desai, Giovanni Elvira, Phia Halleen, Yongyi Liu, Kenia Machuca, Rosalyn Moya, Chris Ndubuizu, Elle Nguyen, Chris Schouest, Julie Tan, Michelle Tran, Abner Vasquez, and Michelle Wu.
Partnering Consultants
- Thank you to our partners at Facente Consulting for leading site design, interview implementation, and video narrative development.
- Thank you to Daigle Digital for filming, editing, and producing all videos for this project.
Tobacco-Free Project Staff
- Thank you to Jessica Estrada and Rachel Ohtake for overseeing and coordinating all parts of this project, providing and reviewing content, and sharing your subject matter expertise.
- Thank you to Yaffa Alter, Arletha Murray, and Jonathan Ocampo for supporting content review.
- Thank you to former Tobacco-Free Project Director Maryna Spiegel for helping to vision and launch this project and to former Project Director Derek Smith for providing testimonial.
