This week we hear from two health educators who faced long odds in enacting smoke-free policies in Bourbon County.
It’s time for another visit to the story corps project commemorating the tenth anniversary of Lexington’s no-smoking ordinance. The history making vote represented a significant cultural shift in tobacco-rich Kentucky and inspired other counties, cities and towns to follow Lexington’s lead.
Cyndi Steele and Phyllis Robinson are two health educators who faced long odds in enacting smoke-free policies in nearby Bourbon County.
Cyndi, a non-native Kentuckian, made a splash early in her tenure with the local health department when she initiated a study on tobacco use amongst adults as well as teenagers.
In this StoryCorps interview the two discuss their early efforts to change the culture in a top tobacco producing county in Central Kentucky.
Special thanks to the Kentucky Center for Smoke Free Policy at kcsp.uky.edu for sharing the audio from its grant-funded oral history project.
Information on smoke free policies is available here.
We’ll conclude our StoryCorps series on Lexington’s no-smoking ordinance next week.