In a California Healthline Special Report, pharmacy, health and restaurant leaders discussed San Francisco's new ban on selling tobacco in pharmacies and the city's call for restaurants to ban trans-fat from their menus.
The Special Report includes comments from:
- Stan Glantz, professor of cardiology and director of the UC-San Francisco Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education;
- Brian Katcher, public health pharmacist and consultant to the
San Francisco Department of Health; - Lynn Rolston, CEO of the California Pharmacists Association; and
- Kevin Westlye, executive director of the Golden Gate Restaurant Association.
The new regulation banning tobacco sales in pharmacies is intended to deliver a serious message about the health effects of tobacco.
"People associate pharmacies with health and the presence of tobacco in pharmacies sends the wrong message," Katcher said.
"It implies that health concerns are overblown. Just as tobacco products are not available in medical centers, hospitals or medical office buildings, they should not be available in pharmacies," Katcher said (Kennedy,
California Healthline, 8/15).