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 [...]]]> 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.

Then the measure passes. The sky, amazingly, doesn’t fall. Restaurants and [...]]]> 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!

“When you ask [...]]]> 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?

Our friends at Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights have been [...]]]> 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.

Under the law, all indoor workplaces, including bars and restaurants, will be smokefree.

This is according to researchers at the University of Bath’s Tobacco Control [...]]]> More proof of the health benefits of smokefree workplace laws: Heart attacks dropped 2.4 percent after England’s smokefree workplace law took effect in July 2007. That translates into 1,200 fewer people per year who are rushed to emergency rooms with signs of heart attack.

This is according to researchers at the University of Bath’s Tobacco Control Research Group. The findings appear in the British Medical Journal. 

This isn’t the first time research has shown such a benefit; other studies have shown that heart attacks drop significantly once smokefree laws are passed and people are exposed to less secondhand smoke.

That’s because the coronary systems of non-smokers who are exposed to secondhand smoke are harmed, just as the coronary systems of smokers are harmed.

Think again. Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health have found that children who are raised in smokefree homes and live in smokefree communities have less cotinine – a byproduct of cigarette [...]]]> So you’d figure that if your kids are growing up in a non-smoking household, their exposure to secondhand smoke will be pretty minimal, right?

Think again. Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health have found that children who are raised in smokefree homes and live in smokefree communities have less cotinine – a byproduct of cigarette smoke - in their blood kids who live in smokefree homes but live in communities without smokefree laws.

The children who lived in both smokefree homes and counties with smokefree laws had 39 percent less cotinine in their blood than their counterparts who lived in counties without smokefree laws.

The Non-Smokers’ Rights Association in Canada has developed a detailed guide to developing and implementing a smokefree policy in an apartment building. Although it is geared toward apartment managers, condo owners and residents who want to enact change in their buildings will find it useful as well.

Steps range from conducting [...]]]> Are you wondering how to make your apartment building smokefree?

The Non-Smokers’ Rights Association in Canada has developed a detailed guide to developing and implementing a smokefree policy in an apartment building. Although it is geared toward apartment managers, condo owners and residents who want to enact change in their buildings will find it useful as well.

Steps range from conducting a survey of tenants and holding meetings with all involved to giving residents several months notice and mapping out a dispute resolution policy in advance.

The guide contains just one reference to to Canadian law; apart from that, every other piece of advice would work in the U.S.

If you try it out, please let us know!

According to state data, secondhand smoke exposure kills 550 Mississippi residents annually. The government [...]]]> The Mississippi health department is launching a campaign to educate that state’s residents about the dangers of secondhand smoke. The point of the two-year campaign, a state health official told the Clarion-Ledger, is to build for support for a comprehensive smokefree air law.

According to state data, secondhand smoke exposure kills 550 Mississippi residents annually. The government will work with health advocacy organizations on the campaign.

It’s great that Mississippi is doing this, but two years? Really?

Right now, 35 states and D.C. have smokefree laws, with most of those covering restaurants and bars. It’s not that new, and it shouldn’t be controversial.

Businesses do just fine after the laws take effect. Further, the science is clear. It really shouldn’t take two years for the state to get to the point where it decides to protect all workers from secondhand smoke.