Thursday, March 19, 2009
Political Action Plan
The first part of our plan is stating the problem with the bill as is. The bill is not aggressive enough, patrons are still exposed to second hand smoke regardless of the ammendments to allow smoking with partitions and separate ventilation units. We believe that the bill that was originally presented to policy makers of Virginia needs to be brought to the table again and passed in full with a full ban on smoking in restaurants. As reported by Dr. Menzies's article (2006) "a number of studies have now established an increased risk of coronary artery disease, cerebrovascular disease, and lung cancer, and the 2006 report by the US surgeon general highlighted the causal relationship between secondhand smoke and premature death." The key stakeholders affected by this bill would include the residents of Virginia, the owner's/employees of bars/restaurants, anyone who visits these bars/restaurants (including tourists). The next step to our plan involves developing a support system within the nursing community in Virginia and include restaurant owners and employees throughout the state. We will also attempt to get local representatives to support this cause and vote for the original full ban on smoking bill. As students we come from various communities throughout the state. Each of us can get our local communities and legislators involved by attending town meetings, writing letters, and inviting policy makers to our blog. This way we will gather support from constituents and policy makers around the entire state. Once we have developed a strong support system the next step would be to approach Tim Kaine (Gov.) as well as other top Virginia legislators who have the power to change the current law. It is important for them to see that the people of Virginia are concerned about their health as well as their environment. Virginia is known as a "tobacco state" mostly because of Philip Morris is a top manufactor of tobacco products and one of it's largest factories is located outside of Richmond, VA. Due to this fact, tobacco lobbyists have a financial impact on our state government. Despite this, the health of Virginians and their concern about the dangers of second-hand smoke is more imporant than the power of these tobacco lobbyists.
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We beleive that this bill would be very beneficial to the health of the nation as a whole. Smoking is a choice and when others are exposed to it, not by choice, it has damaging effects to them as well. In our group certain students home towns already have smoking banned in their states. However if a certain percentage of sales is to liqour smoking is still allowed. For those of us who are from one of these towns, we feel that this is a very beneficial plan to follow through with all over the U.S.
ReplyDeleteWe feel that your action plan would be good in order to educate the community and gain support. By getting the support, especially from the nursing community, we can provide knowledge about the harmful effects of smoking and second hand smoking. We can also work with legislators in order to take action on this bill.
There needs to be a lot education and awareness about this bill in particular to the communities in Virginia. Everyone knows that smoking is bad for you, and a lot of people have made the decision to not smoke due to those health risks. What people might not know is the risks of second-hand smoke that they are exposed to, unwillingly, when they are out at restaurants. With more awareness about what the bill would do for Virginians, I think we would be able to get more citizens on board with our ideas. At that point, we could then get local legislators on our side, as well as state legislators. Awareness and action towards the cause needs to be our top priority. Thanks for your support!
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