[It's great when the antis do the work for you. My neck of the woods made the top ten for smokers ... the smell of freedom.]


"Men's Health Grades 101 Cities on Smoking"

"Southern cities are some of the smokiest in the nation, according to Men's Health magazine's new ranking of the 101 cities on smoking, with Louisville (#101) dead last (no pun intended), followed by Lexington (#100), St. Louis (#99), Shreveport (#98) and Nashville (#97), among 16 cities receiving an "F."

Where is the air smoke free? Salt Lake City, UT, tops the list at #1 while California's smoke-free regulations helped propel Long Beach and Los Angeles to a tie for the #2 spot --- all earned "A+"'s from the magazine.

Cities were ranked on multiple criteria including: data from the American Nonsmokers' Rights Foundation, which helped to identify places with smoke- free laws; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; the United Health Foundation, which provided statistics on the percentage of smokers in various locales; and the CDC, which provided rates of lung-cancer deaths.

The following is the complete list cited in the March issue of Men's Health, on newsstands now:

1. Salt Lake City, UT A+

2.(tie) Long Beach, CA A+ and Los Angeles, CA A+

4.(tie) San Diego, CA A and Honolulu, HI A

6. San Jose, CA A

7. (tie)Riverside, CA A- and Newark, NJ A-

9. Fresno, CA A-

10.(tie) Anaheim, CA A- and New York, NY A-

12. Denver, CO A-

13. San Francisco, CA A-

14. Albuquerque, NM A-

15. Aurora, CO A-

16. Tucson, AZ B+

17.(tie) Boise, ID B+ and Seattle, WA B+

19. Fremont, CA B+

20.(tie) Miami, FL B+ and Colorado Springs, CO B+

22. Oakland, CA B+

23. San Antonio, TX B+

24. Modesto, CA B+

25. Boston, MA B+

26. Sacramento, CA B+

27. Yonkers, NY B+

28. Minneapolis, MN B

29. El Paso, TX B

30. Laredo, TX B

31. Madison, WI B

32. Rochester, NY B

33. Jersey City, NJ B

34. Stockton, CA B-

35. Bakersfield, CA B-

36. St. Paul, MN B-

37. Orlando, FL B-

38. Raleigh, NC B-

39.(tie) Portland, OR C+ and Spokane, WA C+

41.(tie) Mesa, AZ C+ and Phoenix, AZ C+ and Scottsdale, AZ C+

44. Atlanta, GA C+

45.(tie) Washington, DC C+ and Lubbock, TX C+

47. Houston, TX C+

48. Corpus Christi, TX C+

49.(tie) Chicago, IL C+ and Charlotte, NC C+ 51.

Plano, TX C+

52. Dallas, TX C+

53. Buffalo, NY C

54.(tie) St. Petersburg, FL C and Austin, TX C

56. Arlington, TX C

57. Garland, TX C

58. Richmond, VA C

59. Lincoln, NE C

60. Virginia Beach, VA C

61. Grand Rapids, MI C

62. Providence, RI C

63. Baton Rouge, LA C

64.(tie) Tacoma, WA C- and Norfolk, VA C- and Milwaukee, WI C-

67. Chesapeake, VA C-

68. Wichita, KS C-

69. Tampa, FL C-

70. Fort Wayne, IN C-

71. Fort Worth, TX C-

72. Toledo, OH C-

73. Greensboro, NC C-

74. Baltimore, MD D+

75.(tie) Omaha, NE D+ and Des Moines, IA D+

77. Columbus, OH D+

78. Little Rock, AR D

79. Montgomery, AL D

80. Birmingham, AL D-

81. Durham, NC D-

82. Jacksonville, FL D-

83. Oklahoma City, OK D-

84. Tulsa, OK D-

85. Anchorage, AK D-

86.(tie) New Orleans, LA F and Pittsburgh, PA F Akron, OH F

89. Cleveland, OH F

90. Philadelphia, PA F

91. Kansas City, MO F

92. Las Vegas, NV F

93. Memphis, TN F

94. Cincinnati, OH F

95. Detroit, MI F

96. Indianapolis, IN F

97. Nashville, TN F

98. Shreveport, LA F

99. St. Louis, MO F

100. Lexington, KY F

101. Louisville, KY F


ONN NETWORK

quote:

the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; the United Health Foundation, which provided statistics on the percentage of smokers in various locales; and the CDC, which provided rates of lung-cancer deaths.

You would like to think that between the flu shot fiasco and the threat of bioterrorism, the CDC would have better ways to spend their time and taxpayers' $$$. Notice how Salt Lake City and Utah always top the list of non-smoking places (presumably because Mormons don't smoke) yet I doubt that none of the whiny PC ninnies who compile these statistics would ever set foot in this solidly red state.

Well, I can see why I may have had a sheltered view regarding this issue until the last couple years. Three of the F graded cities, is where I have spent almost my entire life. Many smokers are still not effected yet to the same degree, of smokers in other places.

Seems to me that most of the places toward the top of the list are . . . um . . . "blue" states. I wonder if . . . naw . . . there couldn't be a correlation between antismoker zealotry and one of the major political parties. Nah.