Idaho Residents: CONTACT YOUR STATE REPRESENTATIVES TODAY - URGE THEM TO STRENGTHEN THE IDAHO CLEAN INDOOR AIR ACT

Publication Date: 2004-02-19

The Idaho Senate has just passed Senate Bill 1283 to strengthen Idaho's Clean Indoor Air Act.The bill is now in the House Health & Welfare Committee, where we expect it to be considered very soon. In its current form, the law will not only make workplaces, including restaurants, smokefree, but also allow local communities to pass their own strong smokefree measures. We need your help to ensure that this bill remains intact, is passed out of the House Health & Welfare Committee, and finally, is passed by the full House of Representatives.

Please be alert! Over the next several weeks, the tobacco industry and its allies may take steps to add provisions to weaken this bill, like adding an amendment to allow for ventilated smoking rooms, or removing the right of local communities to pass their own smokefree laws. This is where you come in. Please take the action steps listed at the bottom of the page to ensure that the Idaho legislature passes a strong smokefree workplace law.

1. Pick up the phone and call your Representatives at 1-800-626-0471. Simply ask to leave a message for your Representative. They will ask for name and address. Tell them you support a 100% smokefree workplace law to protect all workers and residents from secondhand smoke in Idaho, and add your own personal message. 
   
2. Write letters to the editors to demonstrate your support. Please take a moment to write a letter to your local newspaper. You can also send your letter to the following daily papers. If possible, please email us a copy of your letter at anr@no-smoke.org. TIP: sign your letter and provide your contact information, so that the newspaper can verify authorship.
   
   Idaho Statesman: Box 1800, 333 Northgate Mile, Idaho Falls, Id. 83403 or Email: editorial@idahostatesman.com 
   
   Idaho Press-Tribune: Box 9399, 1618 N. Midland Bd., Nampa, ID 83652 or Email: vholbrook@idahopress.com 
   
   Post-Register: Box 1800, 333 Northgate Mile, Idaho Falls, Id. 83403 or Email: dmiller@idahonews.com
   
3. For more information , please contact the Coalition for a Healthy Idaho at (208) 345-3686 www.chidaho.org or ANR at (510) 841-3032 www.no-smoke.org . Thank you for taking action!
   

SAMPLE TALKING POINTS

• Please vote to support a strong smokefree workplace law to protect all workers and residents from secondhand smoke in Idaho. Everyone deserves to breathe safe clean air in Idaho’s workplaces and public places.

• Local communities should have local control over smokefree measures. Local Idaho communities deserve the right to pass strong local smokefree measures to protect the health of their workers and residents.

• Do not weaken the bill. Please do not consider a ventilation amendment, or any other amendments to weaken this bill. Ventilation does not protect workers and residents from health risks. Idaho deserves a strong smokefree law!
  Thank you. Your calls and letters will bring us one step closer to a smokefree Idaho!