[Evergrey]

Smokiest Metro Areas % Who Are Current Smokers

Wichita Falls, TX 30.9
Hagerstown, MD/Martinsburg, WV 28.9
Huntington, WV/Ashland, KY 27.9
Louisville, KY 27.5
Winston-Salem, NC 25.3
Charleston, WV 24.9
Youngstown/Warren, OH 24.4
Fayetteville, NC 23.8
Hickory/ Morganton/Lenoir, NC 23.8
Tulsa, OK 23.8



Most Smoke-free Metro Areas % Who Are Not Current Smokers

Provo/Orem, UT 95.1
Ogden/Clearfield, UT 91.6
San Jose/Sunnyvale, CA 91.6
Bethesda/Frederick, MD 90.9
Bridgeport/Stamford/Norwalk, CT 89.5
Salt Lake City, UT 89
San Francisco/San Mateo, CA 88.8
Santa Ana/Anaheim/Irvine, CA 88.7
Miami/Fort Lauderdale, FL 88.4
Los Angeles/Long Beach, CA 88.3

Source: CDC

http://health.yahoo.com/featured/69/on-smokeout-day-what-we-know-about-how-to-quit-smoking/


...


interesting to see neighboring Hagerstown and Frederick, MD on opposite lists

[Bootstrap Bill]

I'd like to know why more cities don't ban smoking in public places. Have you ever sat next to a smoker at a bus stop? Not very pleasant.

[PA Pride]

Would those percentages be adults or total population? I'm guessing adults only.

[Steely Dan]

those mormons sure do stick to that whole clean living mantra.

the general trend seems to be that if you hate cigarettes, then go west young man, but if you've got a hankering for some good old fashioned lung cancer, then head to appalachia.

[PA Pride]

but if you've got a hankering for some good old fashioned lung cancer, then head to appalachia.


Hey, who cares about smoking; Most people die from black lung from coal mining before the age of 50 anyway. :banana:

[krudmonk]

I expected more hipster meccas to rank.

[llamaorama]

I think its interesting that places also topping the list are Silicon Valley and Maryland.

I wonder if maybe its more generational. The cities with the least smokers are ones I'd expect to be fairly young demographically, while cities with lots of smokers are the ones that seem to be graying. Or maybe its a redneck thing.

[Thundertubs]

I expected more hipster meccas to rank.

Highly visible, but numerically insignificant, given a metro area.

[KB0679]

Not surprised by the high rankings of NC metros. Hell, Winston-Salem has two brands of cigarettes named after it.

[dktshb]

I expected more hipster meccas to rank.

Los Angeles Miami and San Francisco are hip. :yes: I am not surprised by UT either since those Mormans take very good care of their bodies. 4 of the top 10 in CA and 3 in UT... congrats CA and UT.

[WilliamTheArtist]

I find it incredibly hard to believe that almost 1 in 4 people in Tulsa, or the metro, are smokers. I don't buy it.

[PA Pride]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v284/austindaniel/facepic5avitar.jpg

[Dan Denson]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v284/austindaniel/facepic5avitar.jpg

Cute. But this goes to show that people look a lot better without a cigarette in their mouth.

[krudmonk]

Los Angeles Miami and San Francisco are hip. :yes:
They're on the smoke-free list...

[dktshb]

They're on the smoke-free list...

I assumed that he was referring to the smoke-free list but I guess he thought there should be even more in the top 10? :shrug:

Most Smoke-free Metro Areas % Who Are Not Current Smokers

Provo/Orem, UT 95.1
Ogden/Clearfield, UT 91.6
San Jose/Sunnyvale, CA 91.6
Bethesda/Frederick, MD 90.9
Bridgeport/Stamford/Norwalk, CT 89.5
Salt Lake City, UT 89
San Francisco/San Mateo, CA 88.8
Santa Ana/Anaheim/Irvine, CA 88.7
Miami/Fort Lauderdale, FL 88.4
Los Angeles/Long Beach, CA 88.3

[dktshb]

:doh: See my problem is that I smoke the other stuff and now I am all confused. I should lay off when posting comments on the forum.

[bnk]

WTF how in the hell did

Winston-Salem, NC 25.3


make this list?;)



Ah PA you never disappoint. You are still on the top of your game.


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v284/austindaniel/facepic5avitar.jpg

[Matthew]

As of January 1, it will be illegal to smoke at all restaurants and bars in Winston-Salem. The only indoor places Winston-Salem residents can smoke are at home or RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company's two skyscrapers. I'm actually surprised people there still smoke, considering the number of tobacco jobs in the city has fallen to around 500-750 office workers downtown. They are actually leasing space in their office towers to other companies now. RJ Reynolds signature 22-storey art deco skyscraper is for sale (will become condos and maybe hotel rooms), the trading market closed several years ago and the tobacco companies abandoned all of their factories in the city during the 1980's and 1990's, which are being converted to condos and military bio-tech research labs to regrow limbs lost in combat. Add to that RJ Reynolds is also buying a company selling stop smoking products too. :haha:

[WilliamTheArtist]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v284/austindaniel/facepic5avitar.jpg

My my, aren't you clever lol. :cool:

[BTinSF]

I think its interesting that places also topping the list are Silicon Valley and Maryland.

I wonder if maybe its more generational. The cities with the least smokers are ones I'd expect to be fairly young demographically, while cities with lots of smokers are the ones that seem to be graying. Or maybe its a redneck thing.

What it is in CA is a couple of decades of being ceaselessly bombarded with anti-smoking advertising and legislation. There are places in NorCal where you can't even legally smoke in your own apartment (the smoke might drift to someone else's). A critical mass of non-smokers was reached and they began asserting themselves, becoming quite willing to tell any smokers around that the smoke was bothering them. Smokers have become social pariahs EXCEPT among the quite young. In the Bay Area, for a while, smoking became a teen rebellion thing (more so even than smoking pot since quite a few adults smoke pot). But my impression is that even that has passed now.

Having grown up in the MD suburbs of DC, my guess is the situation is similar.

[Rusty van Reddick]

I visited my family (mom and sibs) in NW Indiana, where I grew up, last week. Mom, one sis and my great-niece, who is 5, had breakfast at a very popular, family-owned, "family restaurant" in Griffith Indiana on the Saturday before I departed for O'Hare. The restaurant was built so that it had two "wings" with cash/hostess stations and kitchen in the middle. One side--an entire half of the seating area--was smoking; the other, where we sat, was non.

We walk in with a five-year-old and the hostess asks if we'd like smoking or non. The very question is jarring to anybody in Canada now- outside of casinos on some native reserves, our entire country is smoke-free, and that goes for ALL workspaces, not just restaurants. But this is the thing- we had a little kid with us!

We had a nice breakfast, the sort that helps one understand why so many people in the Calumet Region are morbidly obese, and I had to hit the restroom before we departed. I took a look at the smoking area, and sure enough, there were kids- including at least one infant, IN THE SMOKING AREA.

This anecdote is only tangentially related to the topic, but I had to post it somewhere. Jedi's Garden Restaurant, Griffith Indiana. Check it out.

[Steely Dan]

^ indiana is one of the last holdouts in the north. indiana and michigan are the only two northern states left that haven't instituted a statewide smoking ban (well, you can technically still smoke in wisconsin restaurants and bars until next summer when their statewide ban takes effect) . michigan being a holdout is a little surprising, but you kinda expect a state like indiana to be perennially behind the curve of its northern brethren.

[lawfin]

^^Does that mean that the cigar bar....i can't remember its name right now...in madison is toast?

That is / was a cool place.....good cigar selection / good scotch selection

[Steely Dan]

^ no, according to wikipedia cigar bars are one of the few exceptions to wisconsin's statewide ban.

"On July 5, 2010, after being signed into law by Governor Jim Doyle on May 18, 2009, S.B. 181 (2009 Wisconsin Act 12) is scheduled to take effect, banning smoking statewide in all enclosed workplaces in Wisconsin, including all bars, restaurants, and private clubs, as well as within a "reasonable distance" outdoors from any such place, except in bar/restaurant outdoor patios. The Act will exempt only cigar bars, retail tobacco stores, private residences, designated hotel/motel smoking rooms, and rooms in nursing homes in which the occupants agree to allow smoking; it does not cover casinos run by Native American tribes, as those casinos are in the tribes' sovereign territory. "

[BTinSF]

We walk in with a five-year-old and the hostess asks if we'd like smoking or non. The very question is jarring to anybody in Canada now- outside of casinos on some native reserves, our entire country is smoke-free, and that goes for ALL workspaces, not just restaurants. But this is the thing- we had a little kid with us!



That has been true of California for over a decade as well. Actually, the indoor non-smoking ordinances are mostly labor laws and regulated by Cal-OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration). But, as I mentioned, an increasing number of localities are banning smoking even in multi-family residences.

[SuburbanNation]

^ indiana is one of the last holdouts in the north. indiana and michigan are the only two northern states left that haven't instituted a statewide smoking ban (well, you can technically still smoke in wisconsin restaurants and bars until next summer when their statewide ban takes effect) . michigan being a holdout is a little surprising, but you kinda expect a state like indiana to be perennially behind the curve of its northern brethren.

I was very surprised to find smoke filled bars in Indiana near Chicago and in Detroit when I just visited. The tavern I ate lunch in, in NW Indiana was choked with smoke at noon! I thought Missouri was really the only holdout left in the midwest. St. Louis City and County just passed some sort of smoking ban that will be phased in. :doh:

[Serenade]

Bethesda/Frederick, MD 90.9
When did Bethesda (an inner-Beltway suburb, no less) get separated from DC ?

[Clevelumbus]

Interesting 2nd highest (Hagerstown, MD/ Martinsburg WV) is right next to 4th lowest (Frederick MD/ Bethesda MD)...

Yeah Bethesda made me sort of laugh as well, DC must be completely separate.

[arbeiter]

What the hell is going on in Wichita Falls? Maybe that's where the Marlboro Men go to die.

[pj3000]

What the hell is going on in Wichita Falls? Maybe that's where the Marlboro Men go to die.

http://www.ariva.de/i-miss-my-lung-bob_a206263

[WilliamTheArtist]

I have mentioned the stats I saw on here to a number of people in Tulsa and they think its ridiculous. There is NO way that nearly 1 in 4 people smoke in this city. And its even more absurd when considering the metro and its suburbs. No way these lilly white, Christian, pretty little mc mansion soccer mom neighborhoods, in the suburbs around here have that many smokers in them. You would be ostracized and scorned as white trash. I do most of my work for the families in these suburbs and I have honestly never once, NEVER met anyone who smokes. Perhaps 20 years ago or back in the 80s you would see people who smoke, but anymore its a rarity and usually some white trash person driving a beat up old car or a scruffy looking person behind a building or something. I have no idea where they got that statistic for Tulsa, but its patently absurd.

[BTinSF]

Interesting 2nd highest (Hagerstown, MD/ Martinsburg WV) is right next to 4th lowest (Frederick MD/ Bethesda MD)...

Yeah Bethesda made me sort of laugh as well, DC must be completely separate.

The Montgomery County/Frederick County axis (along with its Virginia counterpart across the Potomac) is the affluent part of the DC suburbs and is very affluent indeed. These days, I think one of the strongest correlations with non-smoking is money. Affluent, well-educated people don't smoke much. Smoking is increasingly a blue collar thing. Hence the association with Appalachia (Western Maryland is Appalachia just like West Virginia is).

[mhays]

I took a look at the smoking area, and sure enough, there were kids- including at least one infant, IN THE SMOKING AREA.


Given that people smoke at home around their kids, this isn't as surprising.

It's got to be denial or stupidity. Presumably they don't actually WANT to hurt their kids. Either way, people like that are why we need stricter laws.

[arbeiter]

I lived in Virginia briefly in the late 80's as a kid, and my mother, being a nurse, worked in a doctor's office in Richmond. She came home on the first day, aghast that people could smoke in the doctor's office!

I gather that Virginia has changed a lot since then, but it was kind of shocking at the time (at least to my mother, who was a smoker herself.)

[Matthew]

Richmond, Virginia is home to the largest tobacco company in the nation (manufacturers of the best selling Marlboro brand) and recently completed construction on the largest tobacco factory in the world in Richmond. I think Charlotte previously held the title of largest tobacco factory? Virginia also has a long, long history in tobacco. If I'm not mistaken, Richmond leads the nation in tobacco jobs?

[strongbad635]

The Montgomery County/Frederick County axis (along with its Virginia counterpart across the Potomac) is the affluent part of the DC suburbs and is very affluent indeed.

This is true. Frederick is more part of metropolitan Washington DC, which is chock full of yankees and people from all over the country who work for federal agencies, multinational corporations, etc.

Hagerstown is culturally part of the inland south, where smoking is far more common.

The eastern shore of Maryland is more culturally associated with the coastal South, where smoking is more common but is declining faster than in Appalachia.

Metropolitan Baltimore is a mixed bag, based mostly on income. The more affluent suburbs are more cosmopolitan, with lower smoking rates. The more working-class suburbs have higher smoking rates.

[The Agonist]

I'd like to know why more cities don't ban smoking in public places. Have you ever sat next to a smoker at a bus stop? Not very pleasant.


Things have come a long long way in just ten years. I was a non-smoker in SF about ten years and sort of ambivalent about the smoking in bars and clubs thing as I was just used to it. But after the ordinance was passed, it was like a haze had been lifted from eyes. No more smelly clothes. I could see the band/room so much more clearly. Can you believe people used to smoke on planes. What a nightmare.

Now I go weeks with out ever smelling a cigarette. We have come a long way baby.

[BTinSF]

I lived in Virginia briefly in the late 80's as a kid, and my mother, being a nurse, worked in a doctor's office in Richmond. She came home on the first day, aghast that people could smoke in the doctor's office!

I gather that Virginia has changed a lot since then, but it was kind of shocking at the time (at least to my mother, who was a smoker herself.)

I went to medical school at Duke which was endowed by the founder of American Tobacco (Lucky Strike et al)--Washington Duke. We had cigarette machines in the hospital corridors ($0.25 a pack).

North Carolina has changed too.

[sofresh808]

^It is interesting how quickly people can adapt and change their habits. With the fairly recent bans in France, its like night and day visiting now compared to just a couple years ago. I only remembered the lingering smell after hanging out in Barcelona a couple days and having my whole suitcase reek when I came home.

[bobdreamz]

seriously I don't know how people still smoke considering the cost anymore. A pack of cigs here in Florida runs you about $7 a pack and I hear it's almost $10 a pack in NYC.

[LMich]

^ indiana is one of the last holdouts in the north. indiana and michigan are the only two northern states left that haven't instituted a statewide smoking ban (well, you can technically still smoke in wisconsin restaurants and bars until next summer when their statewide ban takes effect) . michigan being a holdout is a little surprising, but you kinda expect a state like indiana to be perennially behind the curve of its northern brethren.

Michigan can actually be explained fairly easily, and it has to do with our decades-long budget deficits. We know it's a regressive tax and wrong-headed public policy in the long-term, but we're afraid to take that revenue out of the system. It's not as if state government has some kind of ideological bent against banning smoking like in some states, but we are addicted to the revenue the industry produces. Heck, the governor proposed this year increasing the tax on so-called loose tobacco. To put through a smoking ban would force the state to grow an actual conscience...

[The Agonist]

Michigan can actually be explained fairly easily, and it has to do with our decades-long budget deficits. We know it's a regressive tax and wrong-headed public policy in the long-term, but we're afraid to take that revenue out of the system. It's not as if state government has some kind of ideological bent against banning smoking like in some states, but we are addicted to the revenue the industry produces. Heck, the governor proposed this year increasing the tax on so-called loose tobacco. To put through a smoking ban would force the state to grow an actual conscience...

That's any state. Michigan will eventually ban smoking in public places. It is just that it is a bit behind the vanguard of public policy (i.e. California)

And in any case anyone who smokes in this day and age is a total fucking douche bag.

[LMich]

That's any state. Michigan will eventually ban smoking in public places. It is just that it is a bit behind the vanguard of public policy (i.e. California)

And in any case anyone who smokes in this day and age is a total fucking douche bag.

No, it's not just any state. Every state hasn't been practically fighting for simple fiscal survival for nearly a decade, eking out pennies wherever we can find them. Debating a smoking ban is not some shiny new idea for Michigan, though, everyone on the coasts thinks that anything not on the coasts are insular social backwaters.

[Shantytown Architect]

My suggestion is that if you don't like the smell of smoke, stand farther away.

[plinko]

What's fascinating about local vs. state bans is how it can pit city vs. city. In Arizona, there is no statewide ban, and thus it is up to individual cities to determine how far the law goes. Tempe (being the progressive college city it is) instituted a restaurant/bar smoking ban. Essentially overnight, the bars and restuarants lost massive amounts of business to bars and restaurants in nearby Scottsdale and Phoenix. There was, of course, much griping on the part of owners in Tempe. I think since then, both Phoenix and Scottsdale have joined in on the ban, but it was something interesting to watch.

Living again in California for the last 8 years, it's actually a rare occurance to smell a cigarette, let alone see someone smoking (though I do see it occasionally on my construction sites). Spending three weeks in Italy in September reminded me just how nasty it is.

[mwadswor]

What's fascinating about local vs. state bans is how it can pit city vs. city. In Arizona, there is no statewide ban, and thus it is up to individual cities to determine how far the law goes. Tempe (being the progressive college city it is) instituted a restaurant/bar smoking ban. Essentially overnight, the bars and restuarants lost massive amounts of business to bars and restaurants in nearby Scottsdale and Phoenix. There was, of course, much griping on the part of owners in Tempe. I think since then, both Phoenix and Scottsdale have joined in on the ban, but it was something interesting to watch.

Living again in California for the last 8 years, it's actually a rare occurance to smell a cigarette, let alone see someone smoking (though I do see it occasionally on my construction sites). Spending three weeks in Italy in September reminded me just how nasty it is.

You are incorrect. Smoking in public places has been illegal in Arizona since November 2006. The law is lousily enforced, I agree, but there is a statewide smoking ban. The law does not apply on reservation land, perhaps you are just spending too much time in the casinos :D

http://www.smokefreearizona.org/

[Steely Dan]

well, it looks like michigan has now gotten on the same page as most other midwest states. indiana is now the only state north of the mason dixon line without some kind of state wide smoking ban.


Michigan lawmakers pass smoking ban that exempts 3 Detroit casinos, cigar bars, home offices

KATHY BARKS HOFFMAN Associated Press Writer

3:11 p.m. CST, December 10, 2009

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The Michigan Legislature passed a long-delayed smoking ban Thursday, with exceptions for three Detroit casinos that have to compete with tribal casinos not affected by the ban.

The Democrat-led House agreed Thursday afternoon to slight changes made by the Republican-led Senate earlier in the day. The bill now goes to Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who has said she'll sign it.

The ban would take effect in May 2010. It applies to all bars, restaurants and work places, except for the Detroit casinos, cigar bars, tobacco specialty stores, home offices and motor vehicles.

full article: http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-ap-mi-smoking-ban,0,7765596.story

[the urban politician]

I never realized how used to nonsmoking establishments I had become until I visited the new, recently opened casino in Battle Creek, MI. The smell of smoke is really quite overpowering.

[LosAngelesSportsFan]

Remember how everyone laughed at Californians 15 years ago... Well well.

[Exodus]

Let's make tobacco illegal while we drive suv's, over eat, live risky sex lives, and go soft on crime. In meantime the thugs will open illegal cigarette houses, which will cause more crimes that the system can ignore.

It seems to me that people have been trained to go along with whatever the "do gooders" and the "progressive" party tells them. Seems to me it contradicts personal liberties, individualism, and progressive or logical thinking.

I'm with the rest of the smokers, light one up and blow the smoke in the face of the police state:tup:

[Exodus]

Remember how everyone laughed at Californians 15 years ago... Well well.Yes, now people are laughing at the "U.S.":haha:

[Exodus]

That's any state. Michigan will eventually ban smoking in public places. It is just that it is a bit behind the vanguard of public policy (i.e. California)

And in any case anyone who smokes in this day and age is a total fucking douche bag.Either that was sarcasm, or one trendy statement, because why just this "day & age" ?

[Strange Meat]

w9ySCcnoo3c

it cuts off early, but the last line at the end is "man, i go through a lighter a day"

[Rusty van Reddick]

Remember how everyone envied Californians 15 years ago... Well well.

FTFY

[Rusty van Reddick]

Let's make tobacco illegal while we drive suv's, over eat, live risky sex lives, and go soft on crime. In meantime the thugs will open illegal cigarette houses, which will cause more crimes that the system can ignore.

It seems to me that people have been trained to go along with whatever the "do gooders" and the "progressive" party tells them. Seems to me it contradicts personal liberties, individualism, and progressive or logical thinking.

I'm with the rest of the smokers, light one up and blow the smoke in the face of the police state:tup:

Finally, the voice of reason! And from a Mobilian!

So it's okay with you if I jerk off in your dad's face against his will? I mean, masturbation is legal (even in Alabama!), and I'm sick of the do-gooders telling me that I can't practice a legal hobby in public. This is nanny-state liberal bullshit that has no place in the proud state of Alabama, which has a prodigious record of defending individual liberties.

Your dad can handle the occasional spray of jizz in his face. That's what I demand. So I'm sure you'll support my efforts? Next time I visit my former colleagues at USA, I'll PM you so I can know where your dad is so I can shoot off a load in his eye.

[ChrisLA]

Yes, now people are laughing at the "U.S.":haha:

Are they really? It seems to me every time I visit Europe, the last two visits was to London & Paris that they are even jumping on the bandwagon. Especially London, there seems to be an aggressive campaign to follow in our steps.

I've always hated cigarettes, and even remember as a 6 year old kid being a smart mouth. I would tell my parents they couldn't smoke in the car. Since I was the smallest of 4 kids I would have to sit in the front seat with them. Most of you probably don't remember, but cars back in the early 70's didn't have bucket seats, but bench type that seated 3 people.

Thankfully everyone in my family who smoked quick many years ago. Only my twin sister continues to smoke, and me I never took up this bad habit. Now that my my parents and siblings stopped, they can't seem to stand the smell any longer. BTW someone mentioned Mormons don't smoke, Jehovah's Witnesses don't smoke either. Many years ago before it was really understood how unhealthy it was, some did smoke.