Lake Cumberland District Health Department using polls in an effort to get school boards to make campuses tobacco-free
Health News

Lake Cumberland District Health Department using polls in an effort to get school boards to make campuses tobacco-free


Countywide smoking bans are unlikely to pass anytime soon in most of rural Kentucky, but more county school districts are making their campuses tobacco-free. Now a multi-county health department is trying to get rural school boards to do that, with public-opinion polls showing that county residents overwhelmingly favor the move.

Department logo has been altered to
show Clinton County in yellow.
The Lake Cumberland District Health Department conducted the poll in Clinton County, and said it found that 86.55 percent were in favor and 7.16 percent were opposed. The rest had no opinion.

Making a campus tobacco-free means that members of the public are not free to smoke at school athletic events, so the poll also asked, ?Would you like to see our school become tobacco-free at all events?? The results were virtually the same: 85.3 percent answered yes and 8.7 percent answered no, even though one-fourth to one-fifth of the county's residents smoke and it has a long history of raising tobacco.

"The results are perhaps surprising to some, considering the rate of tobacco usage in the county," reports the Clinton County News. The poll of 749 residents has an error margin of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.

The department also surveyed 100 teachers in the school system and found that 77 percent would "definitely" support making the schools 100 percent tobacco-free.

The health department presented the survey and other findings to the Clinton County Board of Education June 15, but the board took no action. The department noted that a recent survey found that 28 percent of the county's students in eighth through 12th grades had used smokeless tobacco in the previous 30 days. "That level was the highest in the Lake Cumberland District," the Clinton County News reports.

The Casey County Board of Education adopted a smoke-free policy after a poll by the health department showed 70 percent of the county's residents favored it, the Casey County News reported.




- Clinton County Schools Will Go Tobacco-free In July 2016, Do Media Campaign To Prepare People For The Change
The Clinton County Board of Education has voted to make all of the county's school campuses tobacco free, but decided to not implement this program until the 2016 school year begins to give the public more time to adjust to the new rule, reports the...

- Burgin, In Heart Of Kentucky, Is State's 40th School District To Go Tobacco-free; Ban, Won By Students, Applies To Vapor Products
Burgin Independent Schools, in the heart of Kentucky, will be the latest 100 percent tobacco-free schools in the state, and the first in Mercer County, which has a strong tobacco heritage. The Burgin Board of Education voted April 8 to ban all tobacco...

- Casey Joins Adair And Russell As Longtime Tobacco Counties Where Schools Are Going Tobacco-free; Clinton Defers Action
The schools in another longtime tobacco county in Southern Kentucky are going tobacco-free. With only one member in opposition, the Casey County Board of Education recently enacted a tobacco-free school policy beginning with the 2015-16 academic...

- Carroll County Schools Will Make Campuses Tobacco-free In 2015, Even Including Outdoor Sporting Events
The schools in Carroll County, once one of Kentucky's tobacco strongholds, have begun preparing students, parents, teachers and football fans for smoke-free school campuses starting July 1, 2015. "This ban will apply on district property at all times,...

- Russell County School Board Makes All Campuses Tobacco-free, But Delays Implementation For One Year
The Russell County Board of Education has voted to make all the county's school campuses tobacco-free a year from now, "After some lengthy discussion by the board and visitors," The Times Journal of Russell Springs reports. The vote was 4-0, with...



Health News








.