Lancaster County School-Community Tobacco Prevention Program

The School-Community Tobacco Prevention Program in Lincoln and Lancaster County was established in 2000 as part of a comprehensive statewide tobacco program. All Lincoln and Lancaster County agencies are part of the Tobacco Free Lincoln Coalition and have a continuing partnership dedicated to reducing public and worker exposure to secondhand smoke (SHS) and preventing youth initiation of tobacco. The program's target audience is all 250,000 citizens of Lancaster County, with an emphasis on children and workers, as well as the 10 percent of Lincoln and Lancaster County's population that is made up of racial and/or ethnic minorities.

The goal of this program is to reduce public and worker exposure to secondhand smoke and to prevent youth initiation of tobacco.

As a result of the efforts, several positive outcomes occurred. A 100 percent smoke-free work place policy was presented to the Lincoln City Council but only passed with amendments. An estimated 88 percent of businesses and 62 percent of restaurants and bars are now smoke-free in Lincoln. All residence halls at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) are now smoke-free. Illegal sales of tobacco to minors in Lincoln dropped from 53 percent to an average of 14 percent. The Lancaster County rate dropped from 54 percent to average of 14 percent. More smokers have set rules against smoking in both their home and car. Most county and parochial schools have written tobacco policies.