|
Jacque Petterson
Smoke-free air advocate
Owner
Web Designer
Currently:
Board Member: S.A.F.E.
(Smokefree Air For Everyone)
Member:
Condo Owners For Smokefree Living
Member: APSAC
(Alliance for Protection from Secondhand Smoke in Apartments &
Condominiums)
Member: Legislative Advisory Council
for Texas State House Member,
Representative David Leibowitz
(includes representatives from all party affiliations)
Member: Board of Directors
Oakridge Pointe Homeowners' Association
Past experience includes:
Volunteer spokesperson on
tobacco issues for the
San Antonio, Texas,
U.S.A., American Cancer Society
Member: San Antonio,
Texas-American Cancer Society
Government Relations Committee
Advocacy Committee Chair: 2005 and 2006
Relay For Life - Helotes, Texas
Member: Task Force For Smoke-free Housing
(Los
Angeles, CA)
Member: Smoke Free Affordable Housing Campaign
(Los Angeles, CA)
Member: Santa Clarita Valley (CA) Sheriff's Station
Community
Advisory Committee
Santa Clarita Valley (CA) Sheriff's Volunteer
Santa Clarita Valley (CA)
Mayor's Blue Ribbon Task Force
(educating parents
about teen drug,
alcohol,
and tobacco abuse)
Los Angeles Police Dept.
(CA) Community Advisory Committee
(Secretary-Foothill
Division /
Committee Co-chair
for LAPD City-wide Summit 2000)
Certified Apartment Manager-
National Apartment Association |
Enter
law office site here. |
JAY R. PETTERSON
Mr. Petterson has over
32 years experience as an attorney
and is a former U.S. Magistrate Judge from Minnesota.
CURRENT MEMBER IN GOOD STANDING:
Texas Bar Association (Bar # 24045010)
State Bar of California (Bar#133376)
EDUCATION:
Graduate of Notre Dame University
South Bend, Indiana
BBA, Accounting 1969
Graduate of University of North Dakota Law School
Grand Forks, North Dakota 1972
Juris Doctor
Biography:
Phi Alpha Delta Recipient: Senior Legal Writing Award;
 North Dakota Law Review,
Note Editor, 1971-1972.
Law Clerk to Chief Judge Paul Benson,
U.S. District Court,
District of North Dakota, 1972-1975.
U.S. Magistrate Judge, 6th Judicial Division,
District of Minnesota, 1976-1981.
President, Beltrami County (MN)
Bar Association, 1977-1978.
(Jay assists with legal questions when they arise, with locations of
countries (he is a geography wiz), and has been pro-active in educating
others on the need for smoke-free air in apartments and condos, and even
in child custody suits.) |
|
Sadly, smokers and tobacco companies
continue to encourage the myth that secondhand smoke is not harmful. When
Jacque was a child in the '50s smoking was considered safe enough, and secondhand
smoke was not even a consideration. As an adult she began to hear that
secondhand smoke was bad and could make one sick, but the laws did not protect
her in the workplace, nor was the education strong enough to convince her to
stop smokers from smoking around her.
In 1995, she developed a severe reaction to second-hand smoke causing her to
cough and choke, limiting her air intake, sometimes for hours,
depending on how much smoke she inhaled. Many nights she was up coughing and
choking until the early morning hours. It was both painful and scary. Eventually
she discovered this was an asthmatic reaction.
Jacque believes this reaction is due to years of exposure to secondhand tobacco
smoke as a result of unsuspecting parents smoking in her home and car as a
child, having lived for six years with her first husband, a chain smoker who died
of cancer in 1980, and having worked closely with smokers over the years in
restaurants, hotels, apartment management, retail stores, and most
recently in a small office with a chain smoker from 1989 to 1991.
In 2000 she and her new husband sold their single family home to purchase a
condo in Canyon Country, CA. Unaware that tobacco smoke travels through
buildings from one unit to the others, they purchased a condo based on the fact
that there was no smoke apparent at the time of purchase. Shortly after
renovating and moving in, smoke began to enter their home.
As there is currently no law to protect non-smokers from this situation, the
Homeowners' Association refused to ask the neighbors to stop smoking, the City
Council chose only to set the request for help aside for future reference, and
her legislators said they are sorry about the problem, but will do nothing to change the laws,
choosing to protect the smoker's "right" to pollute their home against their will.
Jacque hopes you are working to
change the laws in your community. With over 400,000 smoker, and over 50,000
non-smoker deaths each year, we must let our government officials know that this
atrocity must stop.
|
|
Contact
Us |
|
