Timeline Stories

In November 1988, California voters approved Proposition 99, also known as the California Tobacco Tax and Health Protection Act of 1988, increasing the tax on cigarettes by 25 cents per pack. California Proposition 99, Tobacco Tax Increase Initiative (1988) Proposition 99 also designated 5 percent of revenues ($0.0125 per pack) to tobacco-related disease research resulting […]

In August 1990, the City of San Luis Obispo, California became the nation’s first municipality to enact a law prohibiting smoking in all enclosed public places, including all restaurants and bars

California started the first publicly funded statewide tobacco quitline (Kick It California, formerly California Smokers’ Helpline).

California’s landmark 1994 Smokefree Workplace Act (Assembly Bill 13) was implemented in public and private workplaces and restaurants on January 1, 1995, and in bars on January 1, 1998 to create the first statewide smokefree bar law.

In November 2007, the City of Belmont, California became the first city in the U.S. to enact a law prohibiting smoking in multiunit housing.

The African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council (AATCLC) was formed in California. Composed of community activists, academics, and public health advocates, the AATCLC has been at the forefront in elevating the regulation of menthol cigarettes and other flavored nicotine and commercial tobacco products on the national tobacco control agenda