New website, www.SortingThroughTheSmoke.com, offers journalists local and state information on tobacco and health

Three Kentucky organizations are launching a website to serve as a one-stop shop for journalists covering tobacco and health issues in Kentucky, and for others interested in documenting the impact of Kentucky’s tobacco use on the health of the state’s residents.

SortingThroughTheSmoke.com is administered by Kentucky Youth Advocates with assistance from the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues and the Kentucky Center for Smoke-free Policy, both based at the University of Kentucky. The site provides state and county-level data, contact information for local and state experts, local and regional news coverage of the issues, and other resources to help tell the story behind tobacco and health in Kentucky.

The site is funded by the American Legacy Foundation, created with money from the 1998 settlement between states and cigarette manufacturers. It carries the same name as a series of 2009 workshops funded by the foundation and conducted by the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues for Kentucky Youth Advocates. On the hot topic of smoking bans, it includes links to information from supporters of regulation and those who favor a libertarian, free-market approach.