Press Room

The 2026 legislative session in Annapolis brought three key developments in tobacco control policy. First, lawmakers declined to advance legislation that would have created an exemption to the Clean Indoor Air Act by expanding the number of businesses that allow indoor cigar smoking. This was met with praise by cancer survivors and health advocates, but, as one survivor advocate with the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) described it, this session “we took one step forward and two steps back.”

PASCAGOULA, Miss. – The city of Pascagoula, Mississippi updated its smoke-free ordinance Tuesday night. The following is a statement from American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) Mississippi Government Relations Director Kimberly Hughes:

As the Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW) Authority considers allowing smoking in the airport, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) recently commissioned a nationwide poll to see how people feel about smoking in airports. 

GALLATIN, Tenn. – The city council of Gallatin passed a comprehensive smoke-free ordinance Tuesday night, becoming the third municipality in Tennessee to do so.

This week, legislation was introduced that would create an exemption to the Clean Indoor Air Act and expand the number of businesses that allow smoking. House Bill 766 is the product of a workgroup established in 2024--without public health organization representation—to discuss whether the state should amend 18 years of precedent by issuing alcoholic beverage licenses to certain tobacco retailers and exempting these workplaces from the smoke-free law.

This Thursday, January 15, will mark 20 years since former Governor Richard Codey signed into law the New Jersey Smoke-Free Air Act, landmark legislation that balked precedent and risked the unknown in service of New Jerseyans’ health, quality of life and ability to thrive. It paid off, bringing smoking rates down across the state and allowing businesses to thrive in a new landscape. Unfortunately, casinos were excluded from such progress, and their business and employees’ health have suffered as a result. Now, days away from a new administration, health advocates are calling on state leaders to finally—after two decades—close the casino loophole.

Statement from American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) Wisconsin Government Relations Director Sara Sahli, Advocacy Director for the American Lung Association Molly Collins and Wisconsin Government Relations Director for the American Heart Association Nicole Hud

JACKSON, Miss. – Cancer patients, survivors and advocates are marking the American Cancer Society's 49th annual Great American Smokeout by calling on elected officials across the state to do more to reduce tobacco use.

During the American Cancer Society’s Great American Smokeout®, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network Urges Lawmakers to Pass Tobacco Control Measures to Protect Public Health
 

Maryland cancer patients, survivors and advocates are marking the American Cancer Society's 49th annual Great American Smokeout by calling on elected officials across the state to do more to reduce tobacco use and keep communities smoke-free. The Great American Smokeout is a day for people who smoke or use any form of tobacco, including e-cigarettes or nicotine pouches, to create a plan to quit.