Before you light up today, remember that Illinois now is smoke-free. Exceptions to the Smoke-Free Illinois Act are limited.

They include:

- Private residences, except when used as a child-care, adult-care or health-care facility or any other business open to the public.

- Semiprivate rooms in nursing homes or long-term care facilities in which residents of the room are smokers and have requested smoking rooms in writing, and provided that the smoke does not infiltrate other areas of the facility.

- Hotel and motel rooms designated as smoking rooms, provided that they are on the same floor, are contiguous and no more than 25 percent of rooms are smoking rooms. These rooms must be permanently designated as smoking rooms.

- Retail tobacco stores that derive more than 80 percent of revenue from tobacco sales.

Get help quitting

For help to quit smoking, call the Illinois Quitline at (866) 784-8937.

Other sources for quitting include the Freedom From Smoking program at the Center for Healthy Lifestyles at OSF St. Joseph Medical Center at (309) 661-5154 and the following Web sites: www.cancer.org

www.smokefree.gov

www.quitnet.org

www.lungusa.org

Health insurers may cover the cost of nicotine patches and prescriptions to aid in smoking cessation.

SOURCES: McLean County Health Department, Bob Keller, Bree Davis