Welcome to the North Carolina Tobacco Prevention and Control Branch web site. Advocates and professionals will find information about evidence-based ways to reduce the toll of tobacco use on N.C. communities and to promote tobacco-free living. There is also information for anyone who is trying to quit using tobacco in the Quitting Tobacco section.

Tobacco use remains the number one preventable cause of death and disease in the United States and North Carolina. The good news is WE KNOW WHAT WORKS and we are making steady progress in North Carolina and the nation. We work on this complex public health problem by building support for proven strategies to:

þ Prevent the initiation of smoking and other tobacco use
þ Eliminate exposure to secondhand smoke
þ Help tobacco-users quit; and
þ Identify and eliminate tobacco-related health disparities among N.C. populations and communities

House Bill 2: “AN ACT TO PROHIBIT SMOKING IN CERTAIN PUBLIC PLACES AND CERTAIN PLACES OF EMPLOYMENT” has been signed into law! See SmokeFree.NC.gov for more information on North Carolina's Smoke-Free Restaurants and Bars Law. On May 19, 2009, Governor Bev Perdue signed legislation that will protect people from the serious health hazards of secondhand smoke in many workplaces and public places.  Effective January 2, 2010, this new law will ban smoking in restaurants and bars in North Carolina. This historic bill, introduced by Representative Hugh Holliman, will eliminate secondhand smoke exposure in over 24,000 locations statewide. Visit the N.C. General Assembly's Web site to read the signed legislation (click the "Ch. SL 2009-27" link for the signed version). For more in-depth information, the UNC Institute of Government has a paper published in May 2009 on Smoking in Public Places: Recent Changes in State Law.

State Buildings Smoke-Free; Local Governments Can Do the Same Beginning January 1, 2008, House Bill 24 became law (N.C. Gen. Stat. 130A-491), banning smoking inside all state government buildings and allowing N.C. local governments to do the same, if they choose. Read more... HB 24 Resource for Local Government