A Carroll nonprofit has created a coalition to ramp up support for smoking bans.
“The compelling new information about the dangers of secondhand smoke compelled us to take a more proactive approach,” said Tricia Supik, executive director of the Partnership for a Healthier Carroll County Inc.
The coalition, which counts 50 residents, Carroll Hospital Center and the Carroll County Health Department among its ranks, has four initial goals:
» Visit local officials to educate them on the benefits of indoor smoking bans
» Add a smoking-related page to the Partnership?s Web site, healthy carroll.org, by the end of the month
» Encourage membership growth
» Hold a public forum on the health risks this month.
Supik has given presentations for officials in recent weeks on the Maryland Clean Indoor Air Act of 2007, which is scheduled for a hearing Wednesday.
Westminster and Sykesville have requested copies of a resolution supporting the statewide ban on smoking in restaurants and bars.
Westminster Common Council Member Robert Wack, a pediatrician at Carroll Hospital Center, said he once dismissed bans as the government intruding into people?s personal lives but changed his mind after reading U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona?s report, which concluded that no risk-free level exists for secondhand smoke.
David Highfield, Westminster United Methodist Church pastor and a coalition supporter, said he advocates smoking bans for a reason he describes as more divine.
“I believe in maintaining our bodies, because they are spiritual vessels,” he said. “It?s about self-care and care of the community. We are God?s temple.”
Baltimore City Mayor Sheila Dixon officially signed a local ban into law Wednesday.
