Many landlords and property managers are instituting a no-smoking clause to improve the health of their tenants, reduce costs associated with rehabbing apartments vacated by a tenant who smoked and reduce the risk of fire damage and death in properties.

ALA works with landlords, tenants, and the community to voluntarily increase the number of smoke-free apartments in Minnesota to better meet the high demands of tenants seeking a healthy, smoke-free environment in which to live.

Contact: Pat McKone
Phone: (651) 227-8014
E-mail: Pat.McKone@lungmn.org or info@lungmn.org
Website: www.lung.org/associations/states/minnesota/indoor--outdoor-air/smokefree-housing.html

MDH - Statewide Health Improvement Initiatives*

Statewide Health Improvement Program (SHIP)
SHIP works to prevent disease before it starts by helping create healthier communities that support individuals seeking to make healthy choices in their daily lives. SHIP works on the areas of community, school, workplace and health care toward sustainable, systemic changes that create widespread, lasting results. Instead of focusing on individual behavior change that may be hard to maintain over time, SHIP makes sustainable changes that support individual choices about health. SHIP 1.0 funded all 53 Community Health Boards and 9 out of 11 tribal governments throughout the state. The current SHIP 2.0 grant funds 17 Community Health Boards and 1 tribal government. Tobacco-related strategies include:

• Smoke-free multi-unit housing (14 grantees)
• Tobacco-free outdoor spaces (1 grantee)
• Tobacco-free post-secondary campus (1 grantee)
• Comprehensive worksite (9 grantees)

Email: Health.OSHII@state.mn.us
Website: www.health.state.mn.us/ship

Community Transformation Grant (CTG)
CTG in Minnesota is helping control health care spending and create a healthier future by decreasing chronic diseases through decreasing exposure to tobacco, increasing physical activity and healthy eating, and improving health care preventative services. In 2011 Minnesota was awarded $3.6 million per year for five years for CTG by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The five-year CTG project period runs through September 2016.

CTG will support health improvement activities in local communities, building on strengths, minimizing duplication of efforts and maximizing impact. Five current grantees with a high need and proven capacity were chosen, representing a large region of Northern Minnesota:
- Carlton-Cook-Lake-St. Louis-Aitkin-Itasca-Koochiching
- Clay-Wilkin-Becker-Otter Tail
- Leech Lake Tribal Community
- Morrison-Todd-Wadena-Cass
- North Country-Polk-Mahnomen-Norman

Email: Health.OSHII@state.mn.us
Website: www.health.state.mn.us/divs/oshii/ctg.html

MDH - Tobacco Prevention and Control Program
Tobacco Prevention & Control connects health professionals, and the public to valuable resources including smoking cessation, reports detailing the effects of tobacco use, educational materials, and guidance on community-based tobacco prevention programs.

Contact: Chris Tholkes
Phone: (651) 201-5394
Email: chris.tholkes@state.mn.us
Website: www.health.state.mn.us/divs/hpcd/tpc/

Tobacco Free Youth Recreation
Tobacco-Free Youth Recreation is a program of the Association for Nonsmokers-Minnesota. Their mission is to assist recreational organizations and communities in their efforts to create a tobacco-free environment where they can promote and model tobacco-free lifestyles.This is accomplished by helping these groups partner with youth and adult community members to implement a recreation-based tobacco prevention strategy.

Phone: (651) 646-3005
Website: www.tobaccofreeparks.org/

• Restricting sales of tobacco products to youth.
• Advocating for smoke-free work sites, restaurants, and multi-housing.
• Creating tobacco-free environments in outdoor recreational settings.
• Devloping best practices for assisting miliary veterans with smoking cessation.

If you would like to report current activity around this strategy, please contact Sueling Schardin at (651) 201-4051 or sueling.schardin@state.mn.us