St. Stanislaus School benefit, 9 to 4 in Kolbe Hall, Adams. Bake sale, snack bar, games, Chinese auctions, money raffle, crafts, and pierogi.
Blackinton Union Church, 1373 Massachusetts Ave., North Adams; 10 to 2. Crafts table, bake sale, Chinese auction, the Christmas table, and kid's grab bag. Lunch $4, $2 kids.
First Congregational Church, North Adams, 9-2.
Nov. 28 Becket Federated Church, Route 8, holiday bazaar from 9-3. Lunch, crafts, baked goods, holiday and other items. Information: Mary Peltier, Parish House, 413-623-5217.
Dec. 5
Holiday Fair at First Congregational Church, 25 Park Place, Lee, from 10 to 3; handcrafted items, raffles, children's shop, bake sale, cut Christmas trees and lunch from 11 to 1. Includes angel-themed goods from SERRV. Information, 413-243-1033 or www.ucc-lee.org.
Dec. 12-13
North Adams Country Club, crafts 9-4; food from That's a Wrap from 11-2. Information: Sheryl Morehouse at 413-822-3329.
Planning a bazaar this season? Submit information to info@iberkshires.com to have it listed here.
We're trying out blogs to offer shorter, easy-to-find news. Let us know what you think.
Send press releases and announcements to info@iberkshires.com. Need to contact someone at iBerkshires? Here's how.
Mammography Dispute The government's issued controversial new guidelines stating that women shouldn't get annual mammograms until age 50, rather than age 40.
iBerkshires will be meeting with local medical experts Monday. Have a question you'd like answered on this issue? Send it info@iberkshires.com with "mammogram" in the subject line.
Tobacco Talk: Your Right to a Smoke-free Workplace
By Joan Rubel Berkshire AHEC 01:00PM / Friday, July 10, 2009
July marks the fifth anniversary of the Smoke-Free Workplace Law in Massachusetts. Thanks to this law, our exposure to secondhand smoke has been greatly reduced. Even so, many people still work or do business in workplaces where secondhand smoke exists. And, if it’s there…in the air, on clothes or furniture…you are being exposed to poisons, including carcinogens.
Even if you can’t smell it, secondhand smoke is dangerous. Secondhand smoke is considered a Class A carcinogen, like asbestos, and we should take it just as seriously. Opening a window, sitting in a separate area, using air filters or a fan does not get rid of secondhand smoke’s harmful chemicals.
The U.S. Surgeon General states that no level of exposure to secondhand smoke is safe. And clean smoke-free air is good for everyone’s health. A recent report issues by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health reported 577 fewer heart attack deaths each year in Massachusetts since the state-wide smoke-free workplace law went into effect.
There’s much that we can each do to protect ourselves. Smokers can smoke outside, away from other people until they feel ready to quit. Non-smokers can find respectful ways to address the issue of secondhand smoke.
Take, for example, Amy, a human service provider in the northern Berkshires. She could smell smoke migrating into her office and she was concerned because children were often in her building and she didn’t want to expose them to it. She believed that the smoke came from the office below her so she visited that office. That person said he smelled the smoke, too, and thought it came from upstairs. Though the source of the smoke was never identified, the word spread that people in the building were concerned about the secondhand smoke. Amy’s visit had the desired effect; she no longer smelled smoke after that visit.
Amy’s willingness to talk about the smoke made the difference. But, what if she had continued to smell smoke there? Or what if Amy had been reluctant to approach the office below hers in the first place?
Amy (and all of us) has a right to a smoke free workplace and a right to complain about indoor smoke. Employers and building owners in Massachusetts (with very few exceptions) owe you a smoke free environment. It doesn’t matter if you don’t know who the smoker is. It doesn’t even matter if the smoker is outside the building. If you smell smoke inside a workplace, including in a lobby or stairwell, the law is being violated and you can file a complaint about it.
All you need to do is call 1-800-992-1895 at the Massachusetts Tobacco Control Program.They will be happy to receive your complaint anonymously and follow up on it with your local Board of Health. You’ll be helping the employer or building owner in question to do the right thing to protect workers and the public.
In the Berkshires, we have some of the highest smoking rates in the state. Nearly three out of every ten people in the northern Berkshires are exposed to secondhand smoke every week. Protect yourself and your children from secondhand smoke and tell us about it. Post your comments here, and tell us your how you’ve intervened to control the amount of secondhand smoke in your environment.
Learn more about secondhand smoke at www.makesmokinghistory.org or by contacting me, Joan Rubel at Berkshire Area Health Education Center.
Joan Rubel is coordinator of Berkshire AHEC’s Northern Berkshire Tobacco-Free Community Partnership. For more information, visit www.berkshireahec.org or contact her at jrubel@berkshireahec.org. Tobacco Talk runs monthly.
As someone who lives with asthma and allergies I hope people, including Fletch, beat the odds. My understanding of tobacco-free workplaces is to enable people like myself the ability to enjoy a safe workplace not dictate who can be a smoker or not.
from: the Whale
on: 08-17-2009
Thanks, Fletch. If I can help someone understand the health and economic consequences of tobacco, I've done my job. And, if a smoker makes the choice to try to quit, I'm glad to direct them to resources to support them.
from: Joan at Berkshire AHEC
on: 07-30-2009
Joan, you are clearly obsesively paranoid and you need to calm down. May I ask what other life threatening activities we encounter each day would you like to have banned?
from: Fletch
on: 07-29-2009
I have to agree with the post that Kotter wrote. Not that smoking is a great thing to do but as stated their are just as many things in our daily lives that we are subjected to that cause cancer and other diseases. Smokers deserve the right to light up as well!
from: Gary Fletcher
on: 07-29-2009
Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death and disease. About half of smokers will die from a smoking-related reason. Maybe you'll beat the odds, but here are the facts: Cigarette smokers are 2 to 4 times more likely to develop coronary heart disease than nonsmokers. Cigarette smoking approximately doubles a person's risk for stroke. Cigarette smoking is associated with a ten-fold increase in the risk of dying from chronic obstructive lung disease. Secondhand smoke is a Class A carcinogin, like asbestos.
from: Joan at Berkshire AHEC
on: 07-13-2009
Question. Why am I still alive?
I grew up in a house with two smokers.
I have been a heavy smoker for 40 years.
I worked in shops and offices where smoking was allowed for 35 years.
I have spent (way too many i'll admit) hours in smoke filled bars.
So pretty much I have spent my entire life either smoking or exposed to secondhand smoke. I am 61 years old. I've been to a doctor about 10 times in my entire life, never for a breathing problem, and I take no medications nor do I use an inhaler.
The way the anti smoking lobby skews their statistics, if I walk out of a store after puchasing a pack of cigaretees and a piano falls on my head, I will be listed as a "smoking related death".
Where is the science that supports the claim thar
second hand smoke kills 3,000 people a year?
Will someone please show me a death certificate that lists second hand smoke as the cause of death?
There are known carcinogens in coffee, snack food,
and the air you breathe whether there is cigarette smoke in it or not.
.JPG)
