Smokefree DC is a citizen-based group whose goal is to promote smokefree environments in Washington, DC.
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By Angela Bradbery, on September 2, 2010
Ocean City, Md., is considering making its beaches smokefree, the Baltimore Sun reports.
A town resident brought the idea to the Council, saying that smoking on beaches doesn’t fit with the town’s family-friendly image. Now the Council will hold a hearing on the idea after the city’s Oct. 18 elections.
This may seem radical for the East Coast, but it’s really not that new an idea. Cities in California have been making their beaches smokefree for years. Beaches are also smokefree in Hawaii, Illinois (on Lake Michigan), Iowa, Massachusetts, Maine, Michigan and Minnesota. Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights keeps a complete and updated list of cities with smokefree beach laws.
I can hear people now saying, “but it’s outside!” Yes, but boardwalks and beaches get pretty crowded, and cigarette smoke lingers, which means everyone breathes the carcinogens. They shouldn’t have to.
By Angela Bradbery, on August 24, 2010
Three cheers to Towson University, which has just adopted a strong smokefree policy that covers all areas of the campus, whether indoors or not.
According to the policy, which took effect this month, no smoking is permitted anywhere on campus — including parking garages, open spaces, athletic areas, sidewalks, parking lots and buildings. There are no designated smoking areas.
Towson rightly recognizes that secondhand smoke causes disease in nonsmokers and leads to higher health costs for smokers. Towson has more than 21,000 students and is located just north of Baltimore, Md.
By Angela Bradbery, on August 19, 2010
Ozone generators, used to get rid of the stik of cigarette smoke, do more harm than good, a new study shows.
The ozone mixes with nicotine to form more harmful chemicals that, because they are extremely small, can get deep into the lungs, according to researchers at the Univeristy of California’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
It has been well-established for years that air filtration systems don’t clean the air of the harmful chemicals in secondhand smoke — they just take the smell out of the air. This new research underscores the fact that the only way to ensure clean indoor air is to be smokefree.
The study was funded by the Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program of the University of California Office of the President.
By Angela Bradbery, on August 14, 2010
Recently, The Washington Post ran an article containing guidelines about sharing walls with neighbors. It noted that “odors, especially from
smoking, are another fairly common complaint.” I sent a letter to the editor in, but it didn’t make it in. Here’s what it said:
Secondhand smoke is more than just a bad odor – it is a health hazard.
It contains 4,000 chemicals, 69 of which are known or suspected
carcinogens. The Surgeon General has said there is no safe level of
exposure to secondhand smoke. Secondhand smoke causes lung cancer and heart disease in non-smokers and aggravates respiratory problems. No
one should have to breathe someone else’s smoke in their own home.
Condo boards and apartment management companies seem slow to adjust to this reality. They make elaborate rules about noise and cooking smells, but rarely tell smokers they must step outside if their smoke is infiltrating nearby units. But boards and management companies can legally do this, and they should.
We encourage tenants and condo owners to educate their management
companies or condo boards about the health hazards of secondhand smoke
and to adopt smokefree policies.
By Angela Bradbery, on August 8, 2010
I was in Las Vegas recently for work (yes, I really did work) and was really struck by a few things:
1) The enormous quantity of lights of all colors, often flashing, all spectacular and all over-the-top. I kept thinking about how much energy is wasted is keeping them shining. Even the water show at the Bellagio never stops — I went for an early morning run along the Strip and the fountains were still springing to life in time to music, although no one was around to watch. What a waste of electricity.
2) The lack of natural beauty. I’m sure it’s somewhere in Vegas, and I could see mountains in the distance, but gawd, not even a park near the Strip? Really? No natural greenery at all? I realized when I returned to Washington, D.C., how beautiful this city is.
3) The secondhand smoke (you knew that was coming). It is horrific. Smoking is allowed in casinos. The catch is – everything is a casino. The hotels are giant casinos that happen to have rooms on top. Restaurants are all located in the hotels/casinos. Although smoking is not allowed in restaurants, the doors frequently open onto the hotel/casino area, which means all the smoke filters in. Don’t even get me started about the bars.
The crime of it is, people work in these places all day/night, which means they are exposed to harmful chemicals all the time at work. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health released a report in 2009 showing workers in Las Vegas casinos were experiencing respiratory problems and had byproducts of secondhand smoke in their bodies. The recommendation: Ban smoking in casinos.
Nevada passed a smokefree law in 2006, but it’s pretty weak. Smoking is allowed in gaming areas of casinos and standalone bars. While I understand concerns that casinos will lose business if they were smokefree, I don’t think that would happen. People will still gamble. That’s exactly what restaurant and bar owners predict in every city and state that makes its bars and restaurants smokefree, and the dire predictions never come to pass. At any rate, the health of workers is more important and should be the top consideration.
Learn more about Nevada’s smoky situation.
By Angela Bradbery, on August 4, 2010
Santa Monica’s City Council is forging ahead in protecting residents from secondhand smoke. The Council has passed a measure making apartment balconies and patios smokefree.
The new law makes areas within 25 feet of doors and windows of multi-unit buildings smokefree, the Santa Monica Daily Press reports. The city has already made outdoor dining areas and beaches smokefree.
The idea is to ensure that smoke coming from balconies and patios doesn’t drift into the homes of nonsmokers — a very real problem.
The concept of making areas of apartments and condos smokefree is controversial but really shouldn’t be. After all, condos and apartment buildings have all kinds of rules about noise (don’t have band practice at 2 a.m.), cooking odors (don’t stink the place up) and nuisances (don’t do anything that drives your neighbors batty). Smoking creates secondhand smoke, a health hazard, and apartment managers and condo boards have just as much right to regulate it as anything else.
In fact, it is legal to declare entire buildings smokefree — that is, to say no one can smoke on the premises, including in their apartments.
Just as it is now standard for restaurants and bars to be smokefree, one day, multi-unit dwellings will be smokefree too. It’s not that radical a concept.
By Angela Bradbery, on July 28, 2010
A provision allowing Washington, D.C., businesses to post no-smoking signs and thereby ensure secondhand smoke doesn’t drift into their buildings is now in effect.
The provision, which is part of a larger bill to curb teen smoking, gives a property owner or ground-floor commercial tenant the right to post a sign asking people not to smoke within 25 feet of the building.
Last year, Smokefree DC was getting phone calls from people who were in office buildings where secondhand smoke was drifting in through windows and doors – thereby violating the smokefree workplaces act, which is designed to protect workers in indoor work spaces from secondhand smoke. Smokefree DC contacted D.C. Councilmember Phil Mendelson, who came up with this solution and put it in the larger bill.
While the bill has no enforcement mechanism, we are counting on smokers to be considerate of those who wish to breathe clean air and will not smoke where the signs are posted.
By Angela Bradbery, on July 21, 2010
It always happens this way: A city or state considers passing a smokefree workplace law that includes bars and restaurants. A hue and cry ensues. There is much debate, and some predict the end of civilization as we know it if the measure is enacted.
Then the measure passes. The sky, amazingly, doesn’t fall. Restaurants and bars thrive. And the new law becomes wildly popular.
That’s what has happened in North Carolina. According to a new poll conducted by the Survey Research Unit at UNC’s Gillings School of Global Public Health, 72 percent of adults in the state support the law, which took effect Jan. 2 and makes restaurants and bars smokefree. And a lot of people are going out more.
Smoke that!
By Angela Bradbery, on July 8, 2010
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is considering making parks and beaches smokefree, The New York Times reports. Not only for health reasons — secondhand smoke drifts, he notes — but for litter reasons too (I’ve never quite understood why smokers who toss butts on the ground think the world is their ashtray).
“When you ask people in our parks and beaches,” Bloomberg said, “they say they just don’t want smokers there.”
New York City wouldn’t be breaking any new ground with this – hundreds of cities have smokefree parks, smokefree beaches, and smokefree zoos.
Wouldn’t it be great if Washington, D.C., did that next?
By Angela Bradbery, on July 7, 2010
Whew. It’s been a busy couple of weeks … I was in upstate New York for a week, enjoying the scenery and being totally unplugged, swimming and canoeing and hiking. Yes, the whole state is smokefree, which is great of course. Returned to a pile of work.
Our friends at Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights have been busy too. They have updated their smokefree law lists and maps. You can learn such nifty factoids as this: 78.9 percent of the U.S. population is covered by smokefree laws.
Traveling anytime soon? ANR has helpfully pulled a list of travel destinations and provided information about their smokefree status.
While I’m promoting ANR’s work, I may as well encourage folks to make a generous donation to the group. They really do fabulous work.
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