9 Establishments receive citations for Smoking
Ford-Iroquois counties – An enforcement team from the Ford-Iroquois Public Health Department visited 20 establishments in Ford and Iroquois counties this past Monday, May 7th to determine if they were in compliance with the Smoke-Free Illinois Act. Persons were found smoking in nine of the establishments. Owners of these establishments will receive a citation and will be fined $250 for the first offense violation.
According to Julie Clark, Tobacco Coordinator at the health department, the agency is responsible for seeing that enforcement of the law is being carried out in Ford and Iroquois counties. “Our responsibility is to simply make sure the law is being followed. It is not to go out and write citations. We would love to do a compliance check and finish without one citation being written,” she said. Clark stated that unfortunately, that did not happen. She said there were four additional establishments that could have received citations because the team members did see ashtrays or smelled tobacco smoke in the establishment. “If the team sees an ashtray, cigarette butts, or other signs of smoking in the establishment, a citation can be written. We chose not to do that this time but may consider it in the future if these establishments do not start complying with the law,” she said.
Additional compliance checks will be conducted in the future according to Clark and will be at various days and times in order to make sure all areas within the bi-county jurisdiction receive visits.
For more information on the Smoke-Free Illinois Act go the www.smoke-free.illinois.gov.
Contact: Julie Clark, PIO
618-288-1123
Cell: 815-383-6236
jclark@fiphd.org