If you take your dog with you everywhere you go, be prepared to be stopped at the doors of the Cook County Courthouse. And if you smoke, don’t smoke too close to the building. On Tuesday, September 21, 2010, the Cook County Safety Committee and Management Advisory Team (MAT) requested that the county board approve the posting of a sign that would address numerous issues related to the environment inside the courthouse.
A September 16 memo from the Safety Committee and the MAT team stated that a couple of issues have become “minor” problems in the building:
1) People smoking close to
building entrances, causing
smoke to infiltrate in through
nearby doors and windows,
and 2) citizens bringing their pets
into the courthouse.
Through MAT team chair Janet Simonen, the two groups requested authorization to post new signs addressing these two issues along with indoor air quality issues addressed on signs already posted at courthouse entrances. The county board previously approved the posting of a sign that said, “To assure a comfortable and healthy environment for everyone: Cook County buildings are tobacco free and fragrance/ scent free.”
TheMinnesota Clean Indoor Air Act of 2007 prohibits smoking in workplaces and public meeting areas, but according to a Minnesota Department of Health fact sheet, the law does not
prohibit outdoor smoking, “regardless of distance from building openings.” The fact sheet goes on to say, “Local governments retain the authority to adopt and enforce more stringent measures to protect individuals from secondhand smoke.”
Simonen did not want to make a big deal out of the issue, saying she wanted to keep the request “low-key” and hoped that any new signs would be “subtle.”
The board did not believe it needed to take any action on the request, but Jim Johnson, Bruce Martinson, and Fritz Sobanja voiced support for the new postings. Thewording suggested by the Safety Committee and the MAT team is as follows: To ensure a comfortable and
healthy environment for everyone,
county buildings are:
Fragrance/scent-free.
We ask
that people refrain from using
perfumes and other scented
products if they are working in
or visiting county offices.
Tobacco-free.
Per state law,
county buildings are tobaccofree.
We also discourage people
from smoking near building
entrances, to prevent smoke
from infiltrating through doors
and windows.
Pet-free.
Only officially
designated service animals
are allowed in the building.
Thank you for your cooperation.
Concern over lighting
At the Human Services Board meeting prior to the county board meeting, Commissioner Fritz Sobanja said he wanted to explain why he has been wearing a visor at meetings in the commissioners’ room. He said his eyes are very sensitive to compact fluorescent lights (CFLs), located in ceiling canisters throughout the room. He has been “allergic” to fluorescent lights since grade school, he said. He said that research has suggested a link
” between CFLs and diabetes and that his blood sugar levels have been rising while he has been a county commissioner. “It changes your molecular structure,” he said.
In an article entitled Dirty
Electricity Elevates Blood Sugar
Among Electrically Sensitive
Diabetics and May Explain
Brittle Diabetes
published in June 2008 in Electromagnetic
Biology and Medicine,
a possible connection is made between certain types of electrical impulses called “dirty electricity” and diabetes.
According to author Magda Havas of the Environmental & Resources Studies department at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, “Our increasing reliance on electronic devices and wireless technology is contributing to an unprecedented increase in our exposure to a broad range of electromagnetic frequencies in urban and rural environments and in both developed and developing countries. This energy is generated within the home by computers, plasma televisions, energy efficient lighting and appliances, dimmer switches, cordless phones, and wireless routers, and it can enter the home and work environment from nearby cell phone and broadcast antennas as well as through ground current.
“Although the position of most international health authorities, including the World Health Organization, is that this form of energy is benign as long as levels remain below guidelines, an increasing number of scientific studies report biological and health effects associated with electromagnetic pollution well below these guidelines….”
The topic was addressed later in the regular county board meeting. Commissioner Sobanja had talked to Maintenance Director Brian Silence, who said that the bulbs couldn’t be switched out without replacing the canisters at a cost of about $5,000 for new lights and labor.
“Well, if it prevents me from getting diabetes…” Sobanja said. He suggested that the light is absorbed through the skin as well as the eyes and said he might have to start wearing black leather. Commissioner Bruce Martinson added a little levity to the conversation and suggested he wear aluminum foil.
Maintenance Director Silence offered his own perspective: “We can’t protect everybody from everything.”
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