Smoke-Free Illinois - Day 4

On Y103.9 news at 6:00AM a McHenry County Health Department official said January is a "transition" month. I wonder whether this means that the new non-smoking rules will be gradually enforced, rather than firmly and fairly enforced from the get-go.

Do you think there is a smoker in Illinois, at least in well-populated or metropolitan areas, who hasn't heard of the new non-smoking rules? Not a chance, unless they have been out-of-state or in hibernation.

This wimpy approach bodes ill for enforcement. I'd be okay with one warning. Let's say, one written warning to the smoker and one written warning to the establishment. And make it in writing, or else the smoker will just repeat the smoking violation and claim he "didn't know."

For a government official to declare a "transition" is inexcusable. The official should have stated that new rules went into effect and smokers are expected to obey them.

It's like a new speed limit on a roadway. You post the new signs, and then you do what some places (like the City of McHenry and the Indiana Dept. of Transportation) do - you "flag" the new signs. They post square, orange flags diagnonally from the two top corners to catch a driver's attention. And then you enforce it.

Only Indiana (and Illinois and other states) do not enforce it, which means almost no one pays attention to the lowered speed limit, which endangers the driver who does reduce his speed to the posted speed limit.

Is this what will happen with Smoke-Free Illinois? Will the law be posted, not enforced and ignored? And the continued endangerment of the health of non-smokers by second-hand smoke?