Friday, January 05, 2007

Bloomington/Normal's Disappointing Exemption

Speaking of voicing your displeasure, 39 Bloomington/Normal establishments have been granted a two month exemption from their smoke-free law. The two month exemption period is to allow for businesses to build an outdoor patio where smoking will still be allowed. What about the employees of those restaurants, bars, and clubs who will have to service those patios? The rights of the non-smoking worker are still be looked over in favor of catering to a habit that kills nearly half a million people every year.

Posted by Smoke-Free Illinois at 9:23 AM | | Comments  

Now's Your Chance To Speak Out

As mentioned several times already on the blog, Naperville has been slowly moving towards adopting a smoke-free law. Now it looks as if they finally have some draft language, but that it will allow for certain health compromising exemptions. Naperville wants to allow businesses to be able to reinstate a smoking policy so long as they can show a 10% revenue drop after the enactment of the ordinance. We cannot let this happen. All Illinois workers deserve to breathe clean, safe air while at work, even employees of bars and taverns. Luckily Naperville is having public comment session, so go out and voice your displeasure with this weak ordinance. Stick up for your rights, nobody should get cancer just from showing up to work everyday.


A few miles to the North and West of Naperville, the tri-cities of Batavia, St. Charles, and Geneva are also holding their own public hearings in regards to a proposed smoke-free ordinance. If you live in the western suburbs please take some time to write in to your elected officials and your local newspapers to let them know that we will only accept 100 percent protection from the class A carcinogen that is secondhand smoke.

Posted by Smoke-Free Illinois at 9:07 AM | | Comments  

It's A New Year, Time To Go Smoke-Free

Happy New Year everybody! It was a very happy new year for several towns in Illinois whose smoke-free laws all went into effect last week. There are now 31 Illinois communities that have made the educated decision to protect the health of their citizens and workers by enacting smoke-free ordinances. Here's a list of the communities that stuffed out smoking with the new year:

-Arlington Heights (Arlington Park, the race course, was unfortunately exempted from the ordinance. The park is a large employer and can seat 50,000 people, all of which will still be exposed to secondhand smoke.)

-Bloomington/Normal

-Hawthorne Woods

-Hoffman Estates

-Long Grove (Long Grove's ordiance was surprisingly weak, allowing for seperate smoking sections and ventilation systems.)

-McLean County

-Northbrook

-Oak Forest

-Orland Park

-Palatine

-Tinley Park

-Urbana (now with smoke-free bars!)

-Wheaton

Posted by Smoke-Free Illinois at 8:39 AM | | Comments