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 June 17, 2011
Unbelievable.
Without any public notice or input, the D.C. Council blew a hole on Tuesday in the really popular smokefree workplaces law. By a 12-1 vote on an amendment to the budget, they said that certain hotels could be exempt from the law one night a year.
What a huge disservice to hotel workers. What contempt for the citizens of the District.
Below is a copy of a letter Smokefree DC sent to the Council today. Please email the Council and urge them to repeal the measure. Make sure to thank Councilmember Phil Mendelson for being the only member to vote for worker and public health.
Continue reading Sneak attack on smokefree law
By Angela Bradbery, on June 13, 2011
Microsoft founder Bill Gates was in China recently, and guess what he was doing?
No, he wasn’t talking computers or touting an education initiative. He was talking about secondhand smoke. Specifically, he was raising awareness of the dangers of secondhand smoke in a country with a sky-high smoking rate. Said Gates, “Both [traditional and online media] let people know about the damage of forced smoking and give some education about how in a very polite way they can ask people not to put them in that situation.’
Gates appeared with the chief executive of Baidu Inc., which operates China’s counterpart to Google.
A third of the adult population of China smokes, and a million people die annually there of smoking-related illnesses. If action isn’t taken, that number could rise to three million by 2030, experts say.
China has instituted some anemic smokefree laws but it has a long way to go.
Way to go Bill!
By Angela Bradbery, on May 23, 2011
 flickr photo courtesy of lysbyth Way to go Philadelphia; Mayor Michael Nutter has signed an executive order making the city’s pools, playgrounds and recreation centers smokefree.
The change takes effect July 1. It’s great news for parents who don’t want their kids to be exposed to the toxins in secondhand smoke. And great news for the kids too.
But at least one news outlet couldn’t help but editorialize. The local Fox News station called the move “another shot at smokers, further limiting their right to consume a legal product.”
Excuse me? It’s not a ban, despite what headline writers say. The order doesn’t say you can’t smoke – it just says you have to go somewhere else to do it. The mayor is saying that smokers can’t poison the air for others at pools, playgrounds and recreation centers.
Oh, Fox News also counted more than 100 cigarette butts on the ground at the recreation center where the mayor made his announcement.
Given that secondhand smoke has 4,000 chemicals, more than 69 of which are known or suspected carcinogens, and given that the U.S. Surgeon General has concluded that there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke, and given that studies show the effects of secondhand smoke are particularly acute for children, we say the mayor of Philadelphia did a great thing today.
By Angela Bradbery, on May 4, 2011
 flickr photo courtesy of larding's photostream We have written previously about graduate student Noah Jacobs’ persistence in attempting to get American University to enforce its no-smoking areas around campus buildings. He has shot a video of scofflaws, collected cigarette butts and brought them to the president’s office, and sent letters to university officials. Smokefree DC, in fact, sent a letter calling on AU’s president to make the entire campus smokefree. (See previous posts here, here, here, here and here.)
So far … nothing has happened. We didn’t get a response to our letter. Jacobs has been told that the school is considering the request — which it has been doing for quite a while now. (Really, it’s not that hard, people.)
Last week, Jacobs sent another email inquiring on the progress of his request. Finally, this week, he got a brief response. In short, it said that a representative from another school (presumably Towson University, which has gone smokefree), visited AU recently to speak with university leaders about that school’s experiences with making the entire campus smokefree. They are still mulling the matter over.
Interestingly, the campus representatives seems to think that it will still be a while before anything happens. Here’s what she wrote to Jacobs:
[O]nce you become an alumnus, the AU Alumni Board will available to share your feedback with the university administration.
Jacobs is scheduled to graduate when he finishes his graduate project, which is August.
By Angela Bradbery, on April 24, 2011
 flickr photo courtesy of mae.noelle By 2020, every state will have laws protecting nonsmokers in bars, restaurants and other workplaces, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicts.
That estimate is based on the rate at which states have been adopting smokefree workplaces laws. We went from zero to 25 between 2000 and 2010.
The CDC estimates that nearly half of U.S. residents are protected by a local or state smokefree workplace law.
That’s similar to an estimate by Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights, which says that between 47.9 percent and 79.4 percent of the population is covered by local and state smokefree laws, depending on how you slice and dice the data.
By Angela Bradbery, on April 21, 2011
 smoker no. 85 by filtran, courtesy of flickr If they can do it in North Dakota, it can be done anywhere.
North Dakota’s capital city is making bars smokefree. Voters this week approved a smokefree bar measure by 60 percent. What’s more, they rejected a proposal for outdoor smoking huts.
The final tally: 5,273 voted to make bars, truck stops and tobacco stores smokefree while 3,554 voted against. The measure permitting smoking huts was defeated by a 4,482-4,285 margin.
Unlike many cities (such as Washington, D.C.), Bismarck isn’t wasting time in implementing its new law; it takes effect next week.
By Angela Bradbery, on April 4, 2011
American University student Noah Jacobs isn’t giving up.
Intent on making the school’s smokefree areas mean something, Jacobs recently took a bag full of cigarette butts in to the president’s office to make his point.
He also delivered a letter calling for the school to protect nonsmokers from secondhand smoke.
The president wasn’t there, but Jacobs showed the butts to a receptionist. He caught the exchange on videotape.
All he wants — and this is eminently reasonable — is for the campus police to start enforcing the “no smoking” signs around building entrances. Right now, they are ignored. Jacobs caught that on tape too.
It’s ridiculous that students should have to beg the faculty to do something so basic and enforce a no-smoking area. In fact, AU should go one step beyond, and really protect all nonsmokers by making the whole campus smokefree.
By Angela Bradbery, on March 30, 2011
For the past year, Jacque Petterson has been collecting stories and links to news articles about smokefree housing – public housing complexes that have gone smokefree, lawsuits filed over secondhand smoke issues in multi-unit dwellings, even information about fires caused by cigarettes.
Now she has put those in Smoke-Free Housing Magazine, an online publication that has just debuted. Petterson, who also runs a website called Smoke-Free Housing Consultants, writes:
It has been a longtime dream of mine to create a magazine that addresses smoking concerns, especially in multi-family housing. I hope that by combining online articles with articles written by those working on this problem around the world in an easy-to-read and graphic-inclusive format we can gain more attention to the problems and solutions, encouraging more smoke-free housing.
Sample articles include “Smoking Ban Proposed for Parthenon Towers,” Some Utah Public Housing Units Are Snuffing Out Smoking” and “New Push for Smokefree Apartments in Washington” (Washington state, alas).
Check it out and enjoy.
By Angela Bradbery, on March 26, 2011
 flickr photo by AbhijeetRane Secondhand smoke is a huge hazard for workers and patrons at casinos, a new study shows.
A new study from researchers at Stanford and Tufts universities shows that being in a smoky casino for less than 2 hours an impair the heart’s ability to pump blood. The researchers studied pollutants in the air of 66 smoky casinos in five states as well as three smokefree casinos. Ventilation and air cleaners did pretty much nothing to clear the air of pollutants.
The study focused on two types of air pollutants blamed for tobacco-related cancers: fine particulate matter, which deposits deep in the lungs, and a group of chemicals called particulate polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PPAHs, which include at least 10 different carcinogenic compounds. Results show that gamblers and casino workers in casinos that permit smoking are subject to levels of particulate air pollution 10 times higher than those who visit smoke-free casinos.
Why is this important? Eighty-eight percent of commercial casinos in the U.S. allow smoking.
As with restaurants, bars, offices, factories and other workplaces, casino workers shouldn’t have to jeopardize their health to have a job.
By Angela Bradbery, on March 16, 2011
 New York, which was one of the early leaders in the smokefree workplace movement, may be a trendsetter when it comes to smokefree housing.
The Wall Street Journal reports that buildings are increasingly going smokefree.
At least half a dozen Manhattan co-ops are expected to ask shareholders during annual meetings this spring to vote on an all-out smoking ban that would prohibit residents from lighting up in their own homes, real estate attorneys say. Another dozen co-op or condo buildings are considering such a vote.
The story notes that some still balk at such a move because they worry about being sued. However, others rightly worried about liability if they don’t go smokefree.
Smokefree DC frequently hears from people who are subjected to secondhand smoke coming from another unit in an apartment or condo building. To assert their right to breathe clean air, those residents must try to persuade a management company or covenants committee to get the smoker[s] to stop. Sometimes the cases land in court, with building managers being sued for failing to enforce nuisance rules. It’s costly in time and money for those involved.
The solution? Make the buildings smokefree. Very simple.
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