See the progress the Coalition has made on its Global Tobacco Control Policy Framework  See the accomplishments the Coalition has made since 1993.

The San Francisco Tobacco Free Coalition, a grassroots coalition of health, youth-serving, and environmental agencies has successfully advocated for several tobacco control ordinances in San Francisco.

The Tobacco Free Coalition sponsored a ground breaking forum to set an agenda for global tobacco control policies in San Francisco on Monday May 19, 1997. At the Forum the Coalition presented its Global Tobacco Control Policy Framework which outlines actions that can be done locally to address the global impact of tobacco.

Dr. Judith Mackay, who established the Asian Consultancy on Tobacco Control in Hong Kong in 1989, Aminata Seck from Mouvement Anti-Tabac, Senegal, Dr. Tom Novotny the CDC Liaison to the World Band, Stella Aguinaga from UC San Francisco's Health Policy Institute, Ross Hammond who shared his experiences from Tanzania, and Gordon Mar from the San Francisco Chinese Progressive Association were featured speakers. San Francisco Supervisor Sue Bierman and Congresswoman Nancy Pelosis' staff member Ron Brown gave supporting statements.

The Tobacco Free Coalition has successfully advocated for several tobacco control ordinances in San Francisco, including the banning of vending machines, tobacco and alcohol advertising on city property, smoke-free worksites and restaurants, the prohibition of tobacco self-service merchandising displays, and most recently a tobacco retailers permit ordinance.

However, the Coalition is acutely aware that while many regulations to control tobacco have been enacted on the local, state and national level, the tobacco industry has shifted its focus to the international community to ensure its growth and profits. In a city as international as San Francisco, we have observed a direct impact on our residents, particularly immigrants from Asia. The marketing strategies used to promote American cigarettes on televised rock concerts from Hong Kong, for example, have an even more powerful impact on Chinese immigrants than the Joe Camel ads here in the U.S. The smoking rates of Asian immigrants in San Francisco reflect the tobacco industry's opening up of foreign markets in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan through US Trade Representative threats of trade sanctions. On both a local and global level, the tobacco industry also has a serious negative impact on the environment. For example, according to the California Coastal Commission, cigarette butts which take an average of 25 years to decompose, account for almost half of the items collected in the annual statewide beach cleanup. The cigarette butts are washed down rivers, lakes and into the ocean from city streets, through storm drains. Seabirds, animals and fish eat them by mistake but because they have no way to digest the filters, they die.

On a global level, tobacco curing barns burn as much as one acre of forest for every acre of tobacco cured. Cigarette manufacturing machines use four miles of paper per hour to roll and package cigarettes. Tobacco cultivation exposes farm workers, many of whom are children in developing countries, to dangerous pesticides which also pollute the soil and waterways. Tobacco's impact on the international community and the environment are both intertwined with politics, the economy, and international trade policies.

San Francisco is positioned as a leader in tobacco control, international trade and environmental issues, as well as a major metropolitan city with political influence. San Francisco has taken the initiative, for example, to file a lawsuit against the tobacco industry to recoup the city and county's costs for providing health care for tobacco related diseases to the medically indigent. This legal action was joined by several California cities and counties. Another example of San Francisco's political influence is the passage of a ground breaking local ordinance requiring businesses doing business with the city/county to provide the same benefits to workers with registered domestic partners as they do married employees. This law has pushed the corporate giant Bank of America to provide domestic partners benefits to its 80,000 workers in the United States.

San Francisco has also shown leadership in the area of environmental policy as the first city to pass local legislation to control the use of harmful pesticides on city and county property.

The Tobacco Free Coalition believes that if we do not begin to address tobacco on a global level, not only will we not be truly effective, but we will also leave the most vulnerable populations more open to tobacco industry aggression. Just as San Francisco has been a leader in the fight against AIDS, we believe that SF can be a leader against the Tobacco Industry, the vector cause of smoking related diseases.