Smoke-free ordinance to be presented at Monday’s council meeting

By KARLA POMEROY
At Monday night’s Basin Town Council meeting, Sharon Altermatt from the Big Horn County Tobacco Prevention and Control Program, and some concerned citizens will be presenting information on a smoke-free ordinance.
Altermatt said her job as a tobacco prevention specialist and the program director is to present information about the advantages to having a smoke-free ordinance, but the ultimate decision comes down to the citizens and the council of each community.
Altermatt started the Big Horn County Tobacco Prevention and Control Program about eight years as part of the youth services program. She said the program grew into a full-time program of its own. It is funded through a state grant from funding from the Tobacco Settlement Trust Fund.
According to figures from the Wyoming Department of Health Substance Abuse Division, Wyoming received $6 million from the Tobacco Settlement Trust Fund in 2004, with similar funding provide each year since the settlement in 1997. Altermatt said Wyoming uses those funds primarily for tobacco prevention and control programs, including setting up a program in all 23 counties in the state, along with the Quit Now program.
Altermatt has provided information on a smoke-free ordinance to Lovell, Greybull and Burlington with only Burlington choosing to move forward, Altermatt said. She said she has been collecting data over the past eight years through surveys, interviews and presentations. The data is provided to the Wyoming Statistical Survey Analysis Center in Laramie and results are given back to Altermatt.
She said she uses the results to tell her what to work on and to assess a community’s readiness. “Big Horn County is at the top level, which is smoke-free ordinance,” Altermatt said.
The smoke-free ordinance is the control portion of the Tobacco Prevention and Control Program, she said. The prevention comes from presentations to schools and organizations, health fairs and promotion of the Quit Now hotline, 1-800-784-8669.
The prevention also includes the collection of the data. “I’ve been to every bar and restaurant in Big Horn County. I help the businesses implement the change when they are ready,” she said.
Altermatt said the information presented to the council Monday night will include information on the dangers of secondhand smoke.

Secondhand smoke
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), secondhand smoke, also known as environmental tobacco smoke, is a complex mixture of gases and particles that includes smoke from the burning cigarette, cigar or pipe tip and exhaled mainstream smoke. The CDC states that secondhand smoke contains at least 250 chemicals known to be toxic, including more than 50 that can cause cancer.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, report by the Surgeon General, as found on the CDC Web site, www.cdc.gov, there are several health effects of secondhand smoke exposure. They are:
• Secondhand smoke exposure causes heart disease and lung cancer in nonsmoking adults.
• Nonsmokers who are exposed to secondhand smoke at home or work increase their heart disease risk by 25 percent to 30 percent and their lung cancer by 20 percent to 30 percent.
• Breathing secondhand smoke can have immediate harmful effects on the cardiovascular system that can increase the risk of heart attack.
The council meeting begins at 8 p.m.