Veterans now able to smoke inside Illinois Veteran's Home
By Chad Douglas
January 25, 2008
We have an update on a story we've followed for a few months now, smoking at the Illinois Veterans Home.
Once the Illinois smoking ban went into effect January first, Veterans were forced to smoke outside in the cold, but that's now changed.
We talked to Jessica Woodward with the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs today for this KHQA Fact Finder report.
She told us veterans will now be able to smoke inside.
She says the first priority is to take care of the veterans and their needs.
After thoroughly reviewing the law and checking with the Health Department, effective
immediately, there are now designated smoking lounges inside the veterans homes.
We asked her how this will affect visitors and employees who don't want to be around smoke.
She told us each smoking lounge in fully enclosed, similar to smoking lounges in airports, so the public doesn't have to go inside them.
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Veterans smoking issue: Smoking shelters
What happened to smoking shelters?
      
January 23, 2008
By Melissa Shriver

Here's more on how Illinois' smoking ban affects veterans who smoke at the Illinois Veterans Home.

When we first aired the story last November, the Director of Illinois' Department of Veterans Affairs told us smoking shelters would be provided for those veterans.

But that's not the case in Quincy.

There are no shelters at the veterans home here, so residents have to smoke outside.

That means veterans are forced to sit or stand out in freezing temperatures.

Today KHQA's Melissa Shriver asked some of the tough questions on viewers' minds to hold your public officials accountable.

Former Marine Don Prasun spent 27 years defending his nation's freedom. Now after the smoking ban, he feels the rights he fought for so many years are being stripped away. Every time he wants a cigarette, he has to leave his home here at the Illinois Veterans home to smoke in frigid temperatures

What do you think should be done?

Prasun said, "I don't think they should treat us veterans like this or treat anybody like this. People bring their dogs in in this type of weather. So they're saying I'm less than a dog."

But it wasn't supposed to be like this. Last November we talked with Tammy Duckworth, the Director of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs.

We asked her what was going to be done for smoking vets.

Duckworth said, "What's going to happen? At our Veterans home where we have World War 2 and Korean War and Vietnam veterans where they're still smokers, we do have facilities for them where they will continue to be able to smoke. We're going to have shelters for them that are within the distance required by law. The issue isn't just their right to smoke but certainly the rights of the other people who do not have to have the second hand smoke."

But there aren't any smoking shelters here. To hold our public official accountable, I called the Department of Veterans Affairs to find out why.

What happened to the plans for smoking shelters?

Jessica Woodward, Spokesperson for the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs said, "For now this is something we continue to look into. But we are complying with the law. Even if we did identify one smoking hut or one location the veterans would still have to walk to that location and still be out in the weather. What we are doing is complying with the law and the Department of Health is still working on the rules."

I called the Department of Public Health to find out if the rules of the law would address this problem. A spokesperson told me there was no rule addressing veterans facilities and that no one could speculate why veterans were left out. So for now, at least according to law....these veterans will continue to smoke in freezing temperatures with no definite end in sight.

Last night we told you that State Senator John Sullivan is working on legislation to allow veterans to smoke in their rooms inside veterans homes.  That would put veterans homes in line with what is allowed at nursing homes throughout the state according to the Smoke free Illinois law.
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