Yes that’s right Winston-Salem made the top of a list along with such cities as Charlotte, Greensboro, Wilmington and Fayetteville. Actually not only is Winston-Salem in that list it ranks Number 2 in the nation and above all others in the state. Interestingly enough though you don’t see the leaders of Winston-Salem holding press conferences or making speeches about it, you don’t see it as a headline in The Journal, not a word on the radio even.�

Just what did Winston-Salem rank so high in that is being ignored by those listed above? Winston-Salem ranks Number 2 in the Best Cities For Smokers according to Forbes. With nearly 33% of the population being smokers Winston-Salem outranks the rest of the state and nearly doubles the national percentage of people that smoke. With smoking banned by law only in cabs Winston-Salem ranks second to St. Louis which has no city ordinances banning smoking but only 29% of the population being smokers. Compared to places like New York with high cigarette taxes and strong “no smoking” ordinances where smoking rates have dropped to 17.5%, rates in Winston-Salem remain high pretty much proving high taxes and smoking bans reduce smoking rates.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, November 3rd, 2007 at 7:06 pm and is filed under Commentary, Triad News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.