[C-U Smokefree] C-U Smokefree updates

[Scott P Hays]

Updates from the Prez:

Greetings to all who love breathing!

A few updates from me to let everyone know what's going on in the battle
to breathe clean air.

First, we have a Strategic Planning meeting set for tomorrow night at 7
at Carle - all are welcome and encouraged to attend.

We now have our on-line supporter's sign-up form up and functional.
Anyone can sign on - even those who live outside of Champaign and Urbana
- but it should emphasize C-U residents and those who work, eat, and
anything else here - which is most of the people in the surrounding
area.  We encourage all members to forward the link to everyone they
know who breathes.

We have signed up at least 38 new individual supporters via this web
form already, and I just handed in 5 petitions with 46 signers from my
church, the City of Urbana Health Fair and my office.  We were in the
60's last I checked, so that's almost 150 individual supporters!  We're
on our way to 1,000!

Our kudos should go to Carle Hospital which has taken an aggressive lead
on combating second-hand smoke by creating a smokefree campus.  You can
link to their press release on our website cu-smokefree.chambana.net.
We're also proud to have the support of Carle Hospital and its member
organizations (Carle Foundation, Health Alliance, and Stratum Med) for
our effort. All have signed our supporters' resolution!
  
On that note, we are up to 17 organizational supporters on our way to
100.  Besides the Carle group, our latest supporter is the Department of
Community Health at the U of I.  Thanks!

After the Strategic Planning meeting tomorrow night, our next event is
the Health Fair at Marketplace Mall on Saturday March 20 from 11-2.  We
still could use a volunteer or two to help staff the table (sign up for
an hour!) or at least swing by our table and say hi and see the new
display! 

Our next regular meeting is April 6th at 7 at Carle - mark your
calendars and be sure to attend!

I would like to recognize and extend a personal welcome to two new
members who are working hard to help build our organization: UIUC
student Dylan Lamar, who is working to build C-U Smokefree's presence on
the UIUC campus and Brian Counter, a colleague of mine at CPRD-UIUC who
is building the electronic database for those who sign the electronic
petition.  Let's keep Brian busy!

Update on HB3996!! HB 3996 - which is a bill to undo statewide
pre-emption, is pending right now before the Illinois House.
Pre-emption keeps all communities but 20 throughout Illinois from
adopting clean air ordinances (and C & U are two of the 20!).  Kathy
Drea from ALA reports that it is scheduled for a floor vote the week of
March 23 - probably the 25th.  We need to contact our House reps again
to keep the pressure on for their yes vote!   We need this bill if we
ever want to breathe freely in communities OUTSIDE C & U.  Naomi
Jakobssen and Bill Black are reportedly "yes" votes, call to thank them
and encourage their continued support!

News from other places: we can now add Uganda to the list of smokefree
nations; smoking is prohibited from workplaces, public places,
restaurants, educational facilities, and bars (make your vacation plans
now!)  It seems their court deemed tobacco smoke to be unhealthy to
Ugandans and "instructed" the Environmental Minister to prohibit
smoking.  So he did and that was that. The cabinet and parliament are
reportedly backing the measure.  ...if we only lived in an authoritarian
state...

FYI, Carol and I will be in Florida (where I grew up) for Spring Break
from the 20th through the 30th.  I promise to engage in lots of
"research" on their new smokefree public place statewide law, which
includes restaurants and nearly all bars. Hey, maybe we can write it off
as a business trip...

Happy breathing and C-U Smokefree!

The Prez


Scott P. Hays, Ph.D.
Research Scientist
Center for Prevention Research and Development
Institute of Government and Public Affairs
University of Illinois
Champaign, Illinois  61820

email: sphays at uiuc.edu
phone: 217.244.2616
fax: 217.244.0214