Group Urges State Institutions to Go Smoke Free

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While state lawmakers ponder a statewide smoking ban, a coalition of health care groups is sponsoring an advertising campaign urging Kentucky to go smoke-free.

The Smoke-Free Kentucky Coalition, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation are spending $93,000 to contrast Kentucky's top ranking in basketball, horse racing, smoking and lung cancer.  The advertising campaign says Kentucky has a lot to be proud of, but not its large number of smokers or the lung cancer rates.   The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says 29 percent of Kentucky adults smoke. Nationally, 19 percent of adults smoke.