Protect Local Control

Ensuring Community Rights
To Pass Smokefree Ordinances
 

State Status

No Preemption

Action Alert

Attention Washington Residents! CONTACT YOUR WASHINGTON STATE LEGISLATORS

Publication Date: 2004-01-06
Now is your opportunity to tell your elected officials how you feel about smokefree air. In the next two weeks Washington State legislators have the opportunity to pass a strong comprehensive smokefree law to protect Washington workers and residents from the health risks associated with secondhand smoke.

This law should not only protect residents from secondhand smoke, but also allow local municipalities to pass their own strong smokefree workplace ordinances. 

We need your help to encourage legislators to support a strong, comprehensive smokefree law that also protects local control.


WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP…

  1. Call your legislators through the Legislative Hotline at 1-800-562-6000 and ask them to support a 100% smokefree workplace law to protect all workers and residents from secondhand smoke!
  2. Write letters to the editors to demonstrate your support. Lawmakers read letters to the editor, and your letter can make a difference. Send your letters to the following newspapers:

    Seattle Times: Letters to the Editor, PO Box 70, Seattle, WA 98111
    or via email at opinion@seattletimes.com

    Seattle Post Intelligencer: P-I Letters to the Editor, Box 1909, Seattle, WA 98111
    or via email at editpage@seattlepi.com
  3. For more information, contact Washington BREATHE at (206) 674-4185 www.wabreathe.org or ANR at (510) 841-3032 www.no-smoke.org. Thank you!

Why do we need a smokefree workplace law in Washington?

  • Everyone deserves the right to breathe safe clean air. For every eight smokers the tobacco industry kills, it takes one nonsmoker with them. Secondhand smoke is the third leading cause of preventable death in this country, killing 53,000 nonsmokers in the U.S. each year.
  • Local municipalities should have the right to pass strong smokefree ordinances. This law would protect local control, and ensure that communities could pass stronger smokefree policies.
  • Health experts agree that ventilation systems do not address the adverse health effects of secondhand smoke. Ventilation systems cannot remove the dangerous toxins from the air. If ventilation provisions or other exemptions are introduced, the law would leave Washington workers unprotected.

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