The Smoke-Free Movement

As mentioned in yesterday's post, Naperville is drafting language for their smoke-free ordinance and have stalled over what exemptions should be allowed. An article in today's Tribune has cited one of the possible exemptions as a "hardship" exemption that would allowed businesses to become exempt from the ordinance if they could prove a 10 percent loss in revenue over a 3 month period. This is a completely unacceptable "compromise" that will continue to put people's lives in danger. How to do you tell the employees of said establishments that after 3 months of working in a cancer free environment that they will have to go back to breathing in toxins and carcinogenic smoke?!?! Those drafting this ordinance have obviously not taken the time to read up on the economic effects of smoke-free legislation. It takes time, at least a year, in order to gather accurate enough data to assess the effects of smoke-free laws. Please write in to your local papers (Tribune, Sun-Times, Naperville Sun, Daily Herald) and please contact Naperville's City Council to let them know that this is a bad idea.


***Here are some other local updates from today's papers***

Mt. Prospect is drafting an ordinance but they want to allow separate rooms with separate ventilation systems. (Tribune)

Skokie is waiting until February to draft their smoke-free ordinance. (STNG: Pioneer Local)

Posted by Smoke-Free Illinois at 6:56 AM | Permalink | Comments   

Naperville has been in discussions over their proposed smoke-free ordinance for what seems like years now, but it looks as if things are finally starting to move. After multiple public hearings and round-table discussions, both The Naperville Sun and The Daily Herald are reporting that language for the ordinance has finally been drafted. Smoke-Free Naperville has done an amazing job building a massive constituency, educating the public, and lobbying the city council, and while the initial draft looks promising, they're still going to have to jockey back and forth over the number of exemptions to be included in the bill.

Keep submitting all those letters to the editor. Our opposition is intent on keeping Naperville a smoker's haven. If you haven't already, you can also get in contact with the Naperville City Council and let them know it' s time to stop stalling and time to start protecting the health of all Naperville workers and citizens. Naperville has been named by Money Magazine as the 2nd most livable city in the country, and if they are intent on maintaining the high quality of life for their citizens that got them that ranking, then they cannot afford to water down their smoke-free ordinance with exemptions. (Note: The #1 most livable city in the country, Fort Collins, CO, is already smoke-free.)

Posted by Smoke-Free Illinois at 7:28 AM | Permalink | Comments   

The Trib today had a breif article on Batavia/Geneva/St. Charles' push to adopt smoke-free ordinances.

Also, there was this little letter to the editor in support of legislation aimed at improving the general public's health...

Posted by Smoke-Free Illinois at 6:50 AM | Permalink | Comments