With technical assistance from the Florida Department of Health in Pinellas County’s Tobacco staff, Habitat for Humanity of Pinellas has gone tobacco free.

Known for assisting low-income families with housing built by volunteers, the not-for-profit organization wanted to help ensure the health and safety of staff, but, in addition to protecting its employees, Habitat took it one step further to making the properties they are building tobacco free, too.

Each property will have a sign announcing that it’s a smokefree site. The Pinellas organization is the local affiliate of Habitat for Humanity International, a global, not-for-profit housing organization that builds homes for low-income families.

“Once we learned of the devastating effects of secondhand smoke and the fact that more than 50,000 children and adults die from it, we wanted to safeguard anyone having close proximity to the houses that we are building as well,” said Michael Sutton, the organization’s chief executive officer.

Since 1985, Habitat for Humanity of Pinellas has been creating homeownership opportunities for low-income people and families with the help of the Pinellas County community. Habitat for Humanity works in partnership with low-income families and individuals to engage community volunteers and corporate, civic and faith organizations to help build and renovate affordable housing.

For information about the organization and its programs, go to http://www.habitatpinellas.org/.

For information about DOH-Pinellas, go to www.PinellasHealth.com or follow us on Twitter @HealthyPinellas. -

About the Florida Department of Health

The department works to protect, promote and improve the health of all people in Florida through integrated state, county and community efforts.

Follow us on Twitter at @HealthyFla and on Facebook. For more information about the Florida Department of Health please visit www.FloridaHealth.gov.