Musicians+Music Lovers for Smoke Free Listening: Senator Meyers' Bill ( SB 1875 )Moves to Senate

Monday, February 25, 2008

Senator Meyers' Bill ( SB 1875 )Moves to Senate

Yippee!
The battle for this bill is just beginning and we will need all of you to write your senators or call them now and ask them to support SB1875
I will try to post a sampling of some of the letters that you all are sending. Every now and then one of you copies me on your letter to your senator. Unless you state otherwise I will assume that I am free to share your letter on this blog.

In the next few days, your Senator will be voting on SB 1875 or the Smoke Free Oklahoma Act. Now is THE time to call and your Senator and tell him that EVERYONE deserves to work in a healthy workplace.

Don't have your Senator's phone number and email? Go to: http://www.lsb.state.ok.us/ - then go to bottom to "Find your legislator." Enter in your home address and then go to your STATE Senator. It is that easy!

Thank you, Margie! I wrote both senators notes along these lines:
Please help protect Oklahomans by insuring that all employees in our state enjoy smoke-free workplaces. Smoke-free work places discriminate against no one and protect all. Those who wish to invite risk by inhaling cigarette fumes should also recognize the right of those who seek to protect against second-hand smoke hazards. If smokers would choose to light up their tobacco where it won't harm anyone else, legislation would not be necessary, and many employers won't forbid smoking for fear of losing revenue, but if the state imposed penalties for all venues (bars, entertainment, waiting areas), smokers would simply have to choose to light cigarettes in places where no one else is harmed.
And, Oklahoma would save healthcare dollars that are far too costly to waste.

Jeffery

Another Letter:
Hello Senator Williamson,

I urge your support for Senate Bill 1875, as it will improve the short- and long-term health of Oklahomans. As you know, the health of Oklahomans has a direct impact on education, the economy, and the quality of life in our state.

Thank you for your thoughtful consideration of this important issue.

Respectfully,
Stephanie Arnold de Verges

1 comment:

smokefreeman said...: Thank you Senator Myers-

Those against the bill don't understand the difference between PUBLIC and private. When a business is open to the PUBLIC, it must obey the laws which protect the general public.

In private, smokers can smoke all they want. In PUBLIC, they can step outside and smoke all they want.

What is so difficult about that?; February 26, 2008 at 4:59 PM

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State Ranks 5th

State ranks fifth in smoking deaths
Adel Knode smokes while reading the newspaper in a smoking room downtown. "I'd like to quit," she says. "But when I try to quit, it causes me a lot of anxiety." Stephen Pingry STEPHEN PINGRY/Tulsa World

By KIM ARCHER World Staff WriterPublished: 1/24/2009 2:23 AMLast Modified: 1/24/2009 2:55 AMDeath rates from smoking have fallen in every state except Oklahoma since the late 1990s, according to new figures from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In fact, smoking-death rates rose by 27 deaths in the Sooner State — to 332 deaths per 100,000 adults ages 35 or older, the CDC said in its latest Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. "This report is a good reminder about how key prevention is," said Doug Matheny, chief of the tobacco use prevention service in the Oklahoma State Department of Health. "Tobacco use is the No. 1 preventable cause of death in the U.S." He said the latest death rates stem from the state's smoking prevalence in the 1990s. "Almost every Oklahoman has lost a friend or loved one from smoking," Matheny said. "It is a major contributor to the four leading causes of death in the state: heart disease, cancer, stroke and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease." The report's authors gathered average annual smoking-death-rate data for all states and the District of Columbia among adults who are 35 or older. Deaths from secondhand smoke exposure were not included. Oklahoma's smoking-death rate is the fifth-highest in the U.S. Oklahoma is one of 17 states and the District of Columbia where the death rate climbed among women. Surprisingly, smoking-death rates declined in men in 49 states and the District of Columbia, but they declined in women in only 32 states, according to the report. Adel
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Knode, 39, of Tulsa said she might never stop smoking. She started when she was 10. "I'd like to quit," she said. "But when I try to quit, it causes me a lot of anxiety," she said. Knode said she has seen many family friends who never smoked or drank alcohol die early from some form of cancer. Yet her own mother, who smoked and drank for years, is now 77. She only recently was diagnosed with lung cancer. "I just don't see the justice and balance for (quitting) in my own personal life," she said. According to the report, Kentucky had the highest overall death rate, at 371 deaths per 100,000. The lowest was Utah's 138 deaths per 100,000. The decline in overall smoking-death rates in 49 states and the District of Columbia reflects the "progress made in lowering smoking prevalence in the United States during the past 40 years," report authors wrote. Recently, the American Lung Association gave Oklahoma a grade of F for the level of tobacco prevention funding in 2008. However, all but seven states received the same grade in that category. The report's authors recommend that programs aimed at preventing people from starting to smoke and helping people quit smoking should be fully implemented. They also recommend that states fund tobacco control programs at the levels recommended by the CDC. The CDC recommends that Oklahoma spend $45 million each year on tobacco control programs, more than twice the $19 million Oklahoma now spends. "We are starting to do some of the right things in Oklahoma to try to turn around this huge problem," Matheny said. "And we are starting to see results."
Kim Archer 581-8315 kim.archer@tulsaworld.com
Highest smoking-death rates
KentuckyWest VirginiaNevadaMississippiOklahoma
Lowest smoking-death rates
UtahHawaiiMinnesotaNorth DakotaNew Mexico
Source: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
By KIM ARCHER World Staff Writer

State ranks poorly

Many other states
receive an F, too,
partly because
grading standards
increased.
BY KIM ARCHER
World Sta) Writer
Despite a significant increase
in tobacco prevention
funding in 2008, the
American Lung Association
gave Oklahoma an F in that
category in its latest report
card on the country’s tobacco
control e2orts.
But the Sooner State
should take heart: All but
seven states received the
same grade.
“We know there has been
progress in Oklahoma, but
we still have a long way to
go,” said Doug Matheny,
chief of the tobacco use prevention
service in the Oklahoma
State Department of
Health.
The association’s annual
“State of Tobacco Control”
report for 2008 graded each
state in four areas: tobacco
prevention and control
spending, smoke-free air,
cigarette tax and cessation
coverage.
“Tobacco use remains the
number one cause of preventable
death in the United
States and its costs to the
health care system and the
economy are breathtaking,”
the report says.
Smoking cost the U.S.
economy more than $193
billion in 2004, including
$96 billion in health-care
costs and $97 billion in lost
productivity, according to
the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention.
Matheny said Oklahoma
has made significant progress
in recent years, moving
from all F’s in the report for
2002 to a C average as recently
as two years ago.
But the bar was set higher
this year in many categories.
For instance, the target for
• prevention program spending
in Oklahoma used to be
$22 million.
The CDC more than doubled
that to $45 million,
which means that the $19
million that Oklahoma now
spends is less than half of
what is needed.
The state received an F in
that category.
In addition, the average
cigarette tax nationally increased
to $1.19 per pack,
up from about 45 cents per
pack in early 2002, the report
said.
Oklahoma, which did not
increase its cigarette tax
rate from $1.03 per pack, received
a D in the report.
New York has the highest
state cigarette tax in the
country at $2.75 per pack,
and South Carolina continues
to have the lowest cigarette
tax at 7 cents per pack,
the report said.
Twelve states and the District
of Columbia have a cigarette
tax of at least $2 per
pack, it said.
Matheny said Oklahoma
received a D for smokefree
air. The state prohibits
smoking in many places, but
there’s a catch.
“We have too many exceptions,”
he said.
“For instance, we don’t
have an even playing field
as far as bars are concerned.
Stand-alone bars are exempt
fromthe prohibition, but bars
in hotels are not. All workers
deserve to be protected.”
This year, the report card
added a new facility type
—bars and nontribal casinos
—which also forced Oklahoma’s
grade lower.
Oklahoma was one of 33
states to receive an F for inadequate
cessation coverage,
which rates whether states
require insurance companies
and Medicaid to cover
cessation treatment.
No states received an A in
this category, which is new
to the report, it said.
Kim Archer 581-8315
kim.archer@tulsaworld.com

New evidence.. 2nd hand smoke and Heart attacks 1/2/09

Smoking ban leads to
fewer heart attacks
A study showed
hospitalizations
dropped 41 percent.
BY MIKE STOBBE
Associated Press
ATLANTA — A smoking
ban in one Colorado city led
to a dramatic drop in heart
attack hospitalizations within
three years, a sign of just
how serious a health threat
secondhand smoke is, government
researchers said
Wednesday.
The study, the longest-running
of its kind, showed the
rate of hospitalized cases
dropped 41 percent in the
three years after the ban of
workplace smoking in Pueblo,
Colo., took e%ect. There was
no such drop in two neighboring
areas, and researchers
believe it’s a clear sign the
ban was responsible.
The study suggests that secondhand
smoke may be a terrible
and under-recognized
cause of heart attack deaths
in this country, said one of its
authors, Terry Pechacek of
the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention.
At least eight earlier studies
have linked smoking bans
to decreased heart attacks,
but none ran as long as three
years. The new study looked
at heart attack hospitalizations
for three years following
the July 1, 2003, enactment of
Pueblo’s ban, and found declines
as great or greater than
those in earlier research.
“This study is very dramatic,”
said Dr. Michael Thun, a
researcher with the American
Cancer Society.
“This is now the ninth
study, so it is clear that smokefree
laws are one of the most
e%ective and cost-e%ective
to reduce heart attacks,” said
Thun, who was not involved
in the CDC study released
Thursday.
Smoking bans are designed
not only to cut smoking rates
but also to reduce second-
• hand tobacco smoke. It is a
widely recognized cause of
lung cancer, but its e%ect on
heart disease can be more immediate.
It not only damages
the lining of blood vessels,
but also increases the kind
of blood clotting that leads to
heart attacks. Reducing exposure
to smoke can quickly
cut the risk of clotting, some
experts said.
“You remove the final one
or two links in the chain” of
events leading to a heart attack,
Thun said.
Secondhand smoke causes
an estimated 46,000 heart
disease deaths and about
3,000 lung cancer deaths
among nonsmokers each
year, according to statistics
cited by the CDC.
In the new study, researchers
reviewed hospital admissions
for heart attacks in
Pueblo. Patients were classified
by ZIP codes. They then
looked at the same data for
two nearby areas that did not
have bans — the area of Pueblo
County outside the city and
for El Paso County.
In Pueblo, the rate of heart
attacks dropped from 257 per
100,000 people before the
ban to 152 per 100,000 in the
three years afterward. There
were no significant changes
in the two other areas.
“The need for protection
from secondhand smoke in all
workplaces and public places
has never been clearer,” said
Matthew Myers of the Campaign
for Tobacco-Free Kids,
in a prepared statement.He is
president of the Washington,
D.C.-based organization.
But the study had limits:
It assumed declines in the
amount of secondhand smoke
in Pueblo buildings after the
ban, but did not try to measure
that. Researchers also
did not note which heart attack
patients were smokers or
not, so it’s unclear how much
of the decline can be linked to
reduced secondhand smoke.

Musicians+Music Lovers for Smoke Free Listening

Monday, February 25, 2008

Senator Meyers' Bill ( SB 1875 )Moves to Senate

1 comment:

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State Ranks 5th

State ranks poorly

New evidence.. 2nd hand smoke and Heart attacks 1/2/09

Dylan and Bones in the Current

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Link to Diane Rehm's interview w Steve McKee,"My Father's Heart"

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Musicians+Music Lovers for Smoke Free Listening

Monday, February 25, 2008

Senator Meyers' Bill ( SB 1875 )Moves to Senate

1 comment:

Blog Oklahoma

BlogCatalog

BlogCatalog

BlogCatalog

State Ranks 5th

State ranks poorly

New evidence.. 2nd hand smoke and Heart attacks 1/2/09

Dylan and Bones in the Current

Music Events and Other Interesting Stuff

Link to Diane Rehm's interview w Steve McKee,"My Father's Heart"

Where Can We Hear Music Smoke Free Now?

Don't know who your legislator is? Click Here

Members

Musician Members Websites

Other Musician Support

Subscribe To Musicians and Music Lovers for Smoke Free Listening

A Peek into my Ebay Gallery

LInks to my other blogs and ebay gallery

About Me

Should Music Venues be Smoke Free