A Half-Century of Protecting Health and Powering Change
Berkeley, CA — Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights (ANR) and the ANR Foundation announced the launch of 50 Stories for 50 Years (#ANR50), a year-long storytelling campaign marking five decades of advocacy for smokefree workplaces, public spaces, and the right of every person to breathe clean air.
The campaign will unfold across ANR’s social media channels (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube) throughout 2026, spotlighting 50 individuals whose courage, creativity, and commitment helped change laws, save lives, and shift the culture around secondhand smoke. Regular story features will examine what conditions were like before ANR’s work and how ANR and its partners changed lives and policy.
Fifty Years in the Making
ANR was founded on March 1, 1976, when a small group of advocates gathered in Berkeley, California, to pursue what was then a radical idea: indoor spaces where no one smoked, where everyone could breathe clean air. At the time, smoking was ubiquitous, people lit up in movie theaters, offices, restaurants, and on airplanes. There were few restrictions, little research on the health consequences of secondhand smoke, and no framework for protecting nonsmokers in the workplace.
Those early founders “didn’t just advocate for change—they created a blueprint for it,” according to Cynthia Hallett, MPH, President and CEO of ANR. The impact of what they began is immense. Today as we learn of the historic decreased smoking rate (an all time low at 9.9%) millions of lives have been saved from cancer, heart disease, emphysema, asthma, and other ailments triggered or exacerbated by secondhand smoke. Today, 62.8 percent of the U.S. population is protected by smokefree workplace laws presenting a vast change built over 50 years, and with many hands, one ordinance at a time.
Story #1: Jamie Kent and Smokefree Tennessee
The campaign launched with the story of Jamie Kent: musician, coalition leader, and a vivid example of how one person’s advocacy can reshape policy for thousands of workers. Watch the story and see the playlist for #ANR50!
For years, Tennessee musicians and hospitality workers had no smokefree protections on the job. Because of preemption, bars and music venues were expressly excluded from state workplace health laws. In 2020, ANR became a founding partner of Musicians for a Smokefree Nashville, helping educate local musicians and advocates on how to eliminate indoor smoking from Music City’s venues and bars. Jamie Kent emerged as a central leader of that effort, eventually chairing Smokefree Tennessee.
ANR working alongside Jamie and his coalition produced historic results. Nashville passed a comprehensive smokefree ordinance in October 2022, followed by Hendersonville, and most recently Gallatin, Tennessee, where the city council voted unanimously in February 2026 to close a longstanding loophole and protect workers in 21+ establishments. Each of these victories required repealing state preemption, returning local control to communities, and organizing musicians and hospitality workers to tell their stories publicly.
“It means the world to our community to know Gallatin’s establishments are safe and welcoming,” Kent said following the Gallatin vote. “I hope it inspires other cities across the state to do the same.”
Jamie Kent’s story illustrates a core lesson from ANR’s 50 years of work: personal stories are powerful, local leads the way, and collaboration between experienced advocates and people on the ground produces results that neither can achieve alone.
The Work Ahead
ANR’s anniversary year comes at a critical moment. While progress over five decades has been extraordinary, 37.2 percent of the U.S. population remains without adequate smokefree workplace protections. Casino workers in New Jersey have waited more than 20 years for the same basic protections their colleagues in every other industry have long enjoyed. Across the country, the tobacco and casino industries, and now cannabis and cigar industry proponents, push back against smokefree laws, seeking exemptions and attempting to renormalize indoor smoking.
“The fight continues,” Cynthia Hallett, MPH, the President and CEO wrote in her 50th anniversary message. “We look forward to hearing your stories throughout this milestone year.”
How to Follow the Campaign
The 50 Stories for 50 Years campaign will be published regularly throughout 2026. New stories will appear on ANR’s social channels, and via email. Supporters can join the conversation using #ANR50, and participate by uploading stories here.
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Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights (ANR), sister organization to the ANR Foundation, is a member-supported, non-profit advocacy group that has been working for 50 years, since 1976, to protect everyone’s right to breathe nontoxic air in workplaces and public places, from offices and airplanes to restaurants, bars, and casinos. ANR has continuously shined a light on the tobacco industry’s interference with sound and life-saving public health measures and has successfully protected 62.8% of the population with local or statewide smokefree workplace, restaurant, and bar laws. ANR aims to create healthy communities by closing remaining gaps in smokefree protections for workers in all workplaces, including bars, music venues, casinos, and hotels. For more information, please visit nonsmokersrights.org and smokefreecasinos.org.
See a timeline of ANR’s 50 Years of Work
