Mark Hudspeth Wants His Workplace Smoke-free
Musicians across the country want their workplaces smoke-free. More and more states and cities are offering a healthy and smoke-free work environment to all employees, including musicians. Check out this great video from our neighbors in Texas.
What makes Texas different from Oklahoma is that they DO have local rights. Cities across Texas can go smoke-free and Austin is a great example! Smoke-Free Texas is currently working towards their state becoming 100% smoke-free.
We have collected several stories, but we are looking for more. It could be you. Share your story with us. Contact Paula at: paula@breathethemusic.com.
Everybody has the right to breathe smoke-free air, no matter where they work!
Live to fight another day: HB2135/Restore Local Rights – Update and Next Steps
Speaker of the House of Representatives Kris Steele’s bill – HB2135/Restore Local Rights – did not come up for a vote on the full House floor on Thursday, March 17th. The 17th was the deadline for the House to clear all bills and send them over to the Senate for consideration. HB2135 is by no means dead, but is likely dormant until next year.
Your calls, emails and communication with Legislators have made a tremendous difference in Musicans for Smoke-free Oklahoma/Breathe the Music’s efforts to restore local rights back to communities so that they can then adopt smoke-free ordinances.
M4SFO/BTM still believes and will continue to fight for every one’s right to breathe smoke-free air NO MATTER WHERE THEY WORK – and that every city needs to have local rights restored so that they can then become 100% smoke-free.
Next Steps:
- Sign our statewide “Right to Breathe” petition
- “Like” us on Facebook
- Follow us on Twitter
- Share all of this with your friends, family and other musicians!
Thanks for ALL that you do. Together we can make a difference!
Sincerely,
Paula James Warlick
Musicians for Smoke-free Oklahoma
New Year’s Resolution, #1 & #7 and the Need to Restore Local Rights in Oklahoma
Being in the Top Ten and more importantly being #1 is something that all Oklahomans strive for. We can’t help it. It is best described as a cradle to grave need to be #1. Sometimes #1 will take us quicker to the grave than necessary, especially in relation to smoking and exposure to secondhand smoke.
Today a study was released by The Daily Beast naming the top 30 cities with smoking problems. Oklahoma has secured two positions on their list even making their Top Ten out of 30. Tulsa comes in at #1 and Oklahoma City follows at #7. Even with the U.S. smoking rate declining, Oklahoma still finds it hard to quit this deadly habit or even admit that we have a serious problem. Lots of smokers translates into LOTS of secondhand smoke, especially in a musician’s, bartender’s and other employee’s workplaces.
What Tulsa, Oklahoma City, and other cities and towns across Oklahoma don’t have is the ability or right to go smoke-free. Even if Tulsa and Oklahoma City wanted to go smoke-free, currently they can’t pass a smoke-free ordinance. This year all of that could change if a bill that is being introduced this session by Representative Kris Steele gets passed. It will restore local rights back to communities across the state giving them the ability to become smoke-free and that is a start from where we are right now.
When a city becomes smoke-free, it is easier for smokers to quit and more importantly EVERYONE in that city will have a smoke-free workplace. Everybody as the right to breathe smoke-free air, no matter where they work!
What is your New Year’s resolution this year? Restoring local rights and working on getting musician’s (and all Oklahoman’s) workplaces smoke-free is our top resolution. Is it yours? Take time to sign our petition, follow us on facebook and twitter. Get involved and get us out of the one TOP TEN we do NOT want to be in anymore.
Sincerely,
Paula James Warlick
Musicians for Smoke-free Oklahoma
Fact vs. Fear and Fiction
Have you been keeping up with all of the recent news in Oklahoma regarding restoring local rights so that cities can choose to become smoke-free? We have! You can find them on our “news article” tab.
We keep hearing the same old arguments about how this will infringe on the “smoker’s” rights. How it will be hard and in some cases impossible to enforce. How it will not allow them to compete with stand-alone bars and casinos. How for a tobacco retailer, it will be hard for them to enforce because they have stores all over the state and it would be difficult and impossible to manage.
None of these things are true. They are based on Big Tobacco lies and feed on fiction and some people’s fear of “losing their rights.”
Currently musicians and other workers do not have the right to breathe smoke-free air in their workplaces and cities have no rights under current Oklahoma law to become smoke-free.
FACT: Voters Want a Smoke-Free Oklahoma
- 68% of voters believe the rights of customers and employees to breathe clean air is more important than the rights of smokers to smoke and owners to allow smoking.
- 59% of Oklahomans SUPPORT a smoke-free environment for Oklahoma workers and families.
- Smoke-free laws will increase business – 18% of those surveyed say they would go out MORE OFTEN if restaurants and bars were smoke-free.
- 94% of Oklahomans believe secondhand smoke is a health hazard – 59% say it is a “serious” health hazard, 22% say it is a “moderate” health hazard, and 13% say it is a “minor” health hazard.
FACT: Secondhand Smoke is a Major Health Hazard in Oklahoma
- There is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke.
- Approximately 700 deaths in Oklahoma each year are attributable to secondhand smoke exposure, about the same number that are caused by motor vehicle accidents.
- Oklahoma’s “Smoking in Public Places and Indoor Workplaces Act” was broadened in 2003, but it left several broad exemptions or loopholes.
- These loopholes pose a known public health risk for thousands of Oklahoma workers in these places, including many nonsmokers. All visitors to these places also are subject to harmful exposure.
FACT: Smoke-Free Will Save and Protect Oklahoma Workers
- Smoke-free policies are the most economic and effective protection from secondhand smoke exposure – separate areas, air cleaning or ventilation does not eliminate exposure.
- Smoke-free workplace laws immediately and notably improved heart health (including fewer heart attack hospitalizations) particularly in nonsmokers, according to studies in Colorado, Indiana, Montana, New York, Ohio, Germany, Ireland, Italy and Scotland.
FACT: Smoke-Free Will Save Oklahoma Dollars
- Secondhand smoke exposure imposes economic costs on individuals, businesses and society as a whole through direct and indirect medical costs and productivity losses.
- New York’s smoke-free air law led to $56 million savings in direct health care costs in 2004.
- Medical costs and economic losses to nonsmokers suffering from lung cancer or heart disease due to second hand smoke are estimated at nearly $6 billion a year.
Printable Fact Sheets can be found at Smoke-free Oklahoma.com
“Get a Job Someplace Else!”
Matt Stansberry tells us why he thinks everybody has the right to breathe smoke-free air. from Paula Warlick on Vimeo.
Meet Matt Stansberry.
Matt is a musician in Oklahoma who feels that everybody has the right to breathe smoke-free air.
Matt is also a longtime sufferer of asthma making playing in a smoking venue impossible and not really an option. Somehow his workplace is not protected by the same laws that protect other workers in Oklahoma. We think that is unfair. Do you?
Restoring local rights will create an even playing field for buisnesses that want to do the right thing and better yet, let this musician and father of two have a healthy work environment.
Follow us on facebook and post your story about “why you want Oklahoma smoke-free.”
Why Restoring Local Rights = Everybody Being Able to Breathe Smoke-free Air
When asked “Why isn’t Oklahoma smoke-free?” “Why isn’t Tulsa or Oklahoma City smoke-free?” The answer is not a simple one. Most people don’t know that current Oklahoma law will not allow a city to pass a smoke-free ordinance. As you sit there and wonder, aren’t Dallas, Austin and other cities across the United States smoke-free?
In Oklahoma, we have the great distinction of being one of only two states (Tennessee is the other) to have the most restrictive and comprehensive preemptive language in the nation. We have total preemption. Even if your town/city WANTS to go smoke-free, they can’t. Unless our Oklahoma State Legislators work towards restoring local rights.
BTW, these preemptive clauses in our state tobacco laws were passed by the Oklahoma State Legislature for the tobacco industry in 1987. Some of those players are still around the Oklahoma State Capitol trying to make sure that Oklahoma does NOT restore local rights. (We will talk about them later!)
Local Rights Means Local Debate and Community Change
A powerful change process unfolds as a community debates the issue of secondhand smoke. 68% of Oklahoma voters believe the rights of customers and employees to breathe clean air are more important than the rights of smokers to smoke and owners to allow smoking . (Refrence Poll by SoonerPoll.com in Feb. 2010)
Next Steps and how YOU can help!
Tuesday,November 2, 2010 was election night. We have many new elected officials that don’t even have smoke-free or restoring local rights on their radar. Their workplace IS already smoke-free and they think that since most restaurants (the ones without separately ventilated smoking rooms) are smoke-free, their job is done. But it isn’t. As musicians, your workplace isn’t smoke-free.
It isn’t limited to just musicians. Remember there are thousands of other employees out there who continue to work in an environment full of hazardous secondhand smoke, not to mention all of the patrons and music lovers who want to go out and not breathe in all of those carcinogens.
Here are some ways to get started:
- Sign our statewide petition!
- Find out who your new, or existing elected officials are. Even if you didn’t vote for them, that is okay. They are the ones who will decide to restore local control. Find a way to introduce yourself to them. Don’t know who your elected officials are? Go here to find yours!
- Write a letter to the editor of your local paper.
- Post your story on our facebook fanpage.
- Contact our campaign at info@breathethemusic.com – we can help you get started!
Together, we CAN get the smoke out of Oklahoma, but it is going to take ALL of us.
So, what DOES a musical grocery store look like?
Musical Grocery Store supports Breathe the Music? You bet your blue jackalope they do! from Paula Warlick on Vimeo.
Scott Smith, proprietor of Tulsa’s only musical grocery store/coffee shop, tells us why he supports Musicians for Smoke-free Oklahoma/Breathe the Music.
Everybody (including blue jackalopes) have the right to breathe smoke-free air – no matter where they work!!!!
The Blue Jackalope is a place well worth visiting and we had one the best cups of coffee that we had drank in quite a long time. To find out more about this great place and see our “Breathe” sticker on their door (look hard to find it – lots of great stickers on that door!) – go to: http://www.bluejackalope.com/
To find out more about Breathe the Music go to:
http://breathethemusic.com/
Meet Matt, a Local Musician for Local Rights!
Meet Matt Stansberry. Matt is an amazing musician in Oklahoma. He performs all around the state and has quite a following across the country. He has even toured in Europe. (including Ireland, which IS smoke-free!)
Matt is a husband, a father of two beautiful girls and a longtime suffer of asthma. Playing in a smoking venue is NOT an option for him, but sometimes he has to choose between his health and a paycheck. He isn’t alone in Oklahoma. There are thousands of employees across the state that have to make this decision everyday.
What would it take for Oklahoma to become smoke-free? One way is for cities/communities to have LOCAL RIGHTS restored. Since the 8o’s, Big Tobacco and some of their friends have made it impossible for our State to become smoke-free, but the tide is turning.
We can’t get there without YOUR help.
Join our facebook fanpage, sign our statewide petition and then tell your friends to do the same! You can even share this post with your friends on facebook, twitter, etc…… We can’t do this alone.
Matt and other musicians, bartenders, hostesses, and thousands of other workers in Oklahoma deserve better.
Nobody should have to choose between their health and a paycheck – no matter where they work.
Secondhand Smoke STOPS with Byron Berline! Breathe the Music
Fly the Smoke-free Skies!
There was once a time when airline employees had to breathe secondhand smoke. When they got together and demanded a smoke-free workplace, it changed. We CAN do the same in Oklahoma! Sign our Breathe the Music petition!
