Leland Fairbanks, Arizona physician who pioneered smoke-free policies, dies at 94

When Dr. Leland Fairbanks began his public crusade against tobacco, it was common for doctors, nurses and patients to smoke inside hospitals.

Fairbanks, who died Jan. 21 at 94, was a key figure in fighting for landmark smoking bans across the state at a time when smoking indoors, even in hospitals, was a social norm.

"He was a force of nature, really, on tobacco control," said Will Humble, who is executive director of the Arizona Public Health Association. "He set a good example for what you can accomplish in a life."

In his later years, Fairbanks would introduce himself as "an old country doctor" when he attended public health conferences and gatherings, but that label undersold his public health achievements.

In 1983, when he was an Indian Health Service physician, Fairbanks pushed for a smoking ban at Keams Canyon Hospital on the Hopi reservation. It became the first smoke-free hospital in the United States, according to the IHS.

"Back then you would often have physicians smoking right alongside their patients in the hospital. And the nurses, a lot of them smoked," said Philip Carpenter, executive director of the nonprofit Arizonans Concerned About Smoking, which announced Fairbanks' death this week.

"I think he realized that, wait a minute, this is a hospital, and if there's any place that you should have clean, smoke-free air it's when you are in a rehabilitative facility."

During the debate over going smoke-free at the Keams Canyon Hospital, "they predicted doctors and nurses would resign, but they didn't," Fairbanks told The Arizona Republic in a 2002 interview.

When federal officials wanted to add a smoking room to the hospital, Fairbanks said if they were going to force the issue, the smoking room would have to be in the morgue. "They dropped the issue," he told The Republic.

Fairbanks led efforts for smoking bans in Tempe, Arizona

In 2002, Fairbanks helped convince voters in Tempe to pass what was then the state's strictest smoking ban. And in 2006, when he was in his 70s, he was a driving force in getting voters to pass the Smoke-Free Arizona Act, a voter initiative that has been credited with triggering a steep decline in smoking rates statewide.

The Smoke-Free Arizona law, which went into effect in 2007, prohibits smoking in most enclosed public places and workplaces.

"It was one of those things where the Dems would propose a Smoke-Free Arizona Act every year and it would never even get a hearing, over and over. Then the (American) Lung Association and Dr. Fairbanks, were like, 'OK, we're just going to put it on the ballot,' and they collected the signatures and defeated the challengers," Humble said.

Humble recalled seeing Fairbanks standing outside that summer, when the temperature was over 100 degrees, pounding rebar into the ground with a sledgehammer to put up a Smoke-Free Arizona Act campaign sign.

"He wasn't just talking the talk. He was walking the walk," Humble said. "He was a pure soul. There was nothing fake about him. He cared about people."

Carpenter first met Fairbanks in 2001 after reading an article about Fairbanks' effort to pass the smoking ban in Tempe.

"The next thing you know, I'm a volunteer collecting signatures. ... It did have some pretty stiff opposition from the bar owners," Carpenter said. "For it to happen in a college town was truly remarkable. I moved here in March of 1994 and I can remember going down to Mill Avenue like on a weekend and every place was just full of smoke — the bars, the restaurants."

Some of Fairbanks' foes dubbed him a "tobacco terrorist" and a "Taliban health czar"; many supporters called him the "Energizer Bunny" for his drive and work ethic.

He was a frequent presence at the Arizona Capitol. More recently, Fairbanks was focused on the harms of vaping, Carpenter said.

"He has a hat that said, 'No Smoking, No Vaping'. He would wear that hat all the time, " Carpenter said.

A crusader against tobacco throughout his adult life

Fairbanks, who lived in Tempe, grew up in Minnesota and was a Peace Corps volunteer in Liberia. He served with the U.S. Public Health Corps in New Orleans, Virginia, New Mexico and Arizona.

In 2002, he told The Republic he began his work against tobacco harms in the 1950s, while he was a hospital intern in New Orleans.

"Merchant seamen with lung disease were struggling to breathe, but they still wanted their cigarettes," Fairbanks told The Republic. "Nurses would have to remove the oxygen and hold the cigarettes so they wouldn't drop and set the beds on fire. And the nurses would have to breathe that smoke. I decided then that I was going to be an advocate for those nurses."

From 1985 to 1988, Fairbanks was a member of the U.S. Surgeon General's National Advisory Committee on Smoking and Health. He was also active in a network promoting smoke-free hospitals around the world.

Fairbanks never stopped working to prevent harms from tobacco, even after he retired from physician work at age 70.

"He retired from practice but he stayed active in policy ... It would have been easy to just collect your Social Security and pension and all, but he didn't. He kept pressing," Humble said. "He's a guy who didn't rest on his laurels. He almost made it to 100 by maintaining a purpose, staying active, with a reason to get up in the morning. I'm sure that's why he lived so long."

Reach health care reporter Stephanie Innes at [email protected] or follow her on X, formerly Twitter: @stephanieinnes.