Welcome to GASP of Nebraska's home on the web: www.SmokeFreeNebraska.org
To learn more about Omaha's Smoke-Free Ordinance, visit: www.OmahaSmokeFreeLaw.com
Find out more about it and see if your Senator voted for it here.
GASP maintains a list of smoke-free apartments in Nebraska. Please use our search engine on the left to find them. If you know of a smoke-free apartment that isn't listed in our search engine on the left, please tell us about it in an email message with a subject of "Smoke-Free Apartments" to Info@SmokeFreeNebraska.org.
Our list of smoke-free appartments was compiled form sources believed to be reliable, however we make no guarantees as to its accuracy. Make sure the smoke-free building policy is written into your lease, verbal agreements are of little value. To protect your comfort and health, make sure all apartments are already, and will stay, smoke free before you sign a lease. To be effective, the policy should include outdoor patios, balconies, sidewalks and an area within at least 25 feet of the building.
If you have a problem with a smoky home, rented or owned, contact GASP. We can help you clear the air.
Omaha Is A
Smoke-Free City!
The
Nebraska Supreme Court ruled that the temporary exemptions in Omaha’s
smoke-free ordinance are unconstitutional. The District Court Judge
issued his
revised court order on June 16, 2008. When that order was issued
smoking became
illegal in Omaha bars, keno locations, horse racing tracks and stores
that sell
tobacco (unless the tobacco store sells nothing except tobacco and
tobacco
related items).
In another case,
Big John Billiards, Inc. v. The City of Omaha 1084 - 553, the Douglas
County District Court upheld the Ordinance but through out all of the
exemptions except for allowing smoking in private residences. The
order was signed on April 16, 2009. The Order can be found here.
This
is a great day for everyone in Omaha, especially the employees of the
formerly
smoky businesses. Their risk of suffering ill effects from breathing
toxic
tobacco smoke pollution has been cut drastically.
If you
see or smell smoke in a business in Omaha, please talk to the owner or
manager
of that business to let them know that it is illegal. They are required
to make
sure no one smoke inside their business. If you can’t talk with the
owner or
manager, or they refuse to stop the smoking, you may call 9-1-1 to
report them
to the police.
Mark
Welsch, president of GASP has reported a few businesses to the police
for
violating this law with very quick response from the police. At least
five
tickets have been issued to businesses for illegally allowing smoking
and to
people for illegally smoking. If you want GASP to help stop illegal
smoking,
please send an email message with the name, address and phone number of
the
business to email or call 402-558-0463.
What is in our
smoke-free future?
Now that most businesses in Omaha are smoke free, and most businesses in the state of Nebraska are smoke free effective June 1, 2009, GASP is continuing to work on other priority issues. If you want to tell GASP what you think about our priority issues, or to suggest a new one, please send an email message with your ideas along with your name, email address and phone number to email or call 402-558-0463. We would like to talk with you about your ideas.
Our list of laws we would like to see passed
include:
1.
Make in-home day cares, foster homes and
their vehicles
smoke free all of the time.
2.
Make cigarettes “fire safe” by making them
go out when
they fall onto a couch or bed.
3.
To cause fewer high school students to
smoke, raise the
legal age to buy tobacco from 18 to 19 and eventually to 21 to match
the legal
age to drink alcohol.
4.
Protect children from secondhand smoke by
making cars
smoke free if a child is in the car.
5.
Raise the tobacco tax so that nonsmokers
are not
subsidizing the cost of smokers to Medicaid. Nebraskans currently pay
around
$50 million every year to pay what the tobacco tax does not cover. Just
to
break even, the tax on a pack of cigarettes needs to increase by
50-cents.
6.
Eliminate all tobacco vending machines that
are where
children may use them.
7.
Make public school property smoke and
tobacco free
zones.
02-05-09: Economic fears snuff out smoking bans. Story here.
02-05-09: Letting a cigar bar be a cigar bar. Story here.
06-27-06: View the US Surgeon General's 2006 report on secondhand smoke here.
Smoke-Free Foster Homes
Shouldn't all children in Nebraska foster homes be afforded a smoke-free place to live? Sadly, they are not. Many foster homes are full of carcinogens that cause and exacerbate illnesses such as asthma in young people. Find out what you can do to end this all-too-common form of child abuse.
Other Ways to Help
How do I make a donation?
How do I find out about volunteer opportunities?