A Message From Our President

Welcome to our website. We have worked to achieve smokefree workplaces, public places, and schools, since 1974. In 2006, during my tenure as the New Jersey Commissioner of Health and Senior Services, the New Jersey Smoke-Free Air Act was enacted, and took effect on April 15, 2006. The law covers almost all workplaces, with one exception being the casino gaming floors in Atlantic City.

On April, 2008, the Atlantic City Council unanimously passed their local ordinance to protect casino workers from secondhand smoke. NJ GASP played a key role in educating the City Council and the public-at-large, on the benefits of smokefree casinos. We also air tested in all of the Atlantic City casinos, to show just how bad the air quality is on the smoky gaming floors. The casino gaming floors, where employees worked, were 100% smokefree for one month, from October 15 to November 15, 2008. Unfortunately, prior to this ordinance taking effect on October 15, the casinos asked City Council to rescind their smokefree gaming floors ordinance, which they did. The casinos returned to being smoking permitted. We continue to educate policymakers on the need to protect all workers, including those who work at the casinos.

Going forward, we continue to serve as a global resource to policymakers, advocates and the public on smokefree casinos, as well as smokefree public places and workplaces. In addition, we are educating policy makers and the public on the dangers of smoking in cars with others present, especially children. Outdoor smokefree areas are another smokefree initiative, at parks, playgrounds, beaches, and perimeters around doorways and windows.

NJ GASP continues to provide information to people who are exposed to drifting secondhand smoke in apartments, condominiums and townhouses. We also share information on the need to provide for 100% smokefree housing and transportation for children that are wards of the state.

We need your support to continue our important work. State funding for tobacco control has been cut dramatically. Without your help, we cannot deliver the level of services that we do now, and help so many people who continue to be exposed to secondhand smoke.

Did you know that secondhand smoke kills more than 63,000 nonsmoking Americans every year? Even low exposures can trigger heart attacks in people with heart disease, and can cause asthmatic attacks as well.

The more members we have, the more influential we can be. Therefore, I hope that, after viewing this website, you will join us and help us reach our goals.

Join as a member or send a tax-deductible contribution to GASP, 7 Cedar St., Suite A, Summit, NJ 07901.

Thank you for visiting our website, and we appreciate and need your support.

Best regards,
Fred M. Jacobs, MD. JD, President, Board of Trustees