Who are we?

Nightingales Nurses - read about some of our members

See photos

Our Goals

1. Real tobacco company social responsibility, demonstrated by voluntary industry commitments to end all active marketing and promotion of products they themselves now admit addict and kill their best customers. Voluntarily ending active marketing would leave the industry's first amendment rights protected while demonstrating genuine social commitment. There are other businesses to build that don't kill people!

Find out more about our campaign to end tobacco marketing.

2. 100% smokefree workplaces for employees everywhere, beginning at the local level and including bars and restaurants. Nobody should have to breathe Class A carcinogens to earn an honest living. HELP with getting smokefree policies in YOUR town: Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights,
   www.no-smoke.org  
   

3. Institutional retirement plan divestment from tobacco stock ownership. No nurse should have to rely on tobacco company profits for a secure retirement and it is a conflict of interest for hospitals, health plans, and public entities to supply capital in any form to an industry that kills 440,000 Americans every year. These bodies have a commitment to the welfare of their retirees. HELP your institution or pension plan break its tobacco habit through divestment.
   

4. Full coverage for tobacco cessation treatment programs as part of every health insurance plan, with publicly funded coverage for the uninsured. Every person who wants to quit tobacco, including nurses, should be able to access effective help to do so. HELP: Tobacco Free Nurses,
   www.tobaccofreenurses.org  
   

5. Divestment of tobacco stock ownership by academic medical centers and their parent institutions. Care services and education of clinicians should not depend financially on the continued success of the tobacco industry in marketing disease and death.
   

6. Policies against acceptance of tobacco industry funding for health research and programs. Acceptance of such funding legitimizes the industry and helps perpetuate the industry-promoted myth that we still don't really understand the links between smoking and disease.  
   

7. R Rating for tobacco use in movies. Most smokers start using cigarettes as teens, and studies show that kids who view smoking in movies are more likely to take up smoking. For information about how you can help, go to www.smokefreemovies.ucsf.edu  
   

8. Restoration of full funding levels for comprehensive state tobacco control programs, which have been shown to be effective in reducing tobacco use and changing norms about tobacco. Contact your local smokefree coalition, American Lung Association chapter, American Cancer Society, American Heart Association or other groups working for tobacco control and ask how you can help.