E-mail to Springfield Mayor Jim O'Neal

Dear Mayor O'Neal,

Smoke Free St. Louis City and One Air Alliance have tested the air in St. Louis and Springfield bars that allow smoking and found their air on averageVERY UNHEALTHY according to the EPA Air Quality Index. This is a tough standard for a bar to be judged by. It is a standard set to reflect 24 hour air conditions from which there is no escape and which the very elderly, the very sick, and the very young are all forced to breathe. Yet affordable, readily available air filtration technology can make the air in a bar that allows smoking clean as the air outdoors. So I plan to suggest this exemption for St. Louis City which could also work in Springfield:

"Any public place or place of employment whose owner or operator can demonstrate to the Director of Health that the air within said public place or place of employment, despite indoor smoking, consistently tests to be ofMODERATE or GOOD quality as designated by the EPA Air Quality Index."

Both St. Louis and Springfield usually have either GOOD or MODERATE air quality according to the EPA Air Quality Index, so the exemption basically requires places that allow smoking to have air as clean as the air outdoors.

http://airnow.gov/index.cfm?action=airnow.local_state&stateid=26&tab=1

Sincerely,

Bill Hannegan

314.367.3779

314.315.3779