Taking On The Tobacco Industry, And Winning
As California continues executing policies aimed at reducing tobacco use and eliminating flavored tobacco products, two Sacramento women are working to ensure those policies also address a deeper issue: the decades-long targeting of Black communities by the tobacco industry.
Through Saving Our Legacy (SOL) – African Americans for Smoke-Free Safe Places, co-founder Twlia Laster and executive director Kimberly Bankston-Lee are advocating for community-led solutions that protect public health and reshape policies affecting neighborhoods across the region.
Their work focuses particularly on the Gold Country region, a 14-county area that includes Sacramento, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, and Yolo counties, where both leaders say tobacco-related health disparities have long been overlooked.
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