HAZARD – The Breathe Easy: Perry County Partnership Coalition wants to know what you think about a possible smoking ban of some kind in Perry County, and they are providing a space where you can tell them how you feel about it.

On June 17, Breathe Easy will host a community forum for people in Perry County to air their concerns, ask questions or give their support to some sort of smoking ban.

“This will give the community an opportunity to speak their mind,” Breath Easy co-chair Deirdra Robinson said.

She said the group’s mission is not to advocate a smoking ban, necessarily, but to educate people about second hand smoke and the effect it can have on those who don’t actually smoke.

Robinson said a panel of experts will be at the forum to answer questions and educate the community about smoking bans and the effects of second hand smoke.

Robinson also said she hopes Breathe Easy will be able to dispel misconceptions about smoking bans, such as loss in revenue at restaurants, with facts about bans in other parts of Kentucky that refute that misconception.

The purpose of the forum is also to allow Breathe Easy to gain more information about what the public thinks about a smoking ban in Perry County and how the group can best move forward, she said.

“(Getting a smoking ban) is a purposeful, methodical process,” Robinson said. “We don’t want to go into this half-cocked. We want to know what we’re doing.”

The Breathe Easy forum will be June 17, in the Perry County Public Library auditorium at 6 p.m.