Notification Letter

Attachment 4A-1

PRE-NOTIFICATION LETTER FROM CDC TO PROPERTY MANAGEMENT HEADQUARTERS

Dear Sir/Madam:

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is sponsoring a research study to learn how apartment complexes put into place rules about where people can or cannot smoke and how these rules affect residents’ life. <COMPLEX NAME AND ADDRESS> managed by your firm, has been selected to participate in this research study. We would like to request approval for the complex property manager to participate, if he/she is willing.

The property manager will be asked to participate in a research study of multi-unit housing operators in Los Angeles County. If the operator agrees to participate, he or she will be interviewed at two different times, approximately six to nine months apart. There are several aspects of the operator’s involvement in this research:

• Complete a 45-minute interview administered by one of our data collectors about the property’s characteristics, existing smoking-related policies, secondhand smoke-related issues, smoke-free housing policy-related costs, and their own opinions about smoke-free policies;

• Provide the data collector with written materials that the complex gives tenants about smoke-free policies (such as lease agreements and statements about charges for damages or costs to renovate at turnover a unit that had smokers in it);

• Show the data collector the outside and common areas of the complex to look at signs for designated smoking and non-smoking areas and areas where smoke or other contaminants may enter the building from the outside. This will take approximately 15 – 30 minutes;

• Provide a list of building and apartment numbers of occupied apartments (but not residents’ names or phone numbers) so that we can randomly select residents to participate in a comparable survey; and

• Receive a $75 Visa gift card after the interview is complete as a token of our appreciation.

The goal of this research study is to learn more about how apartment complexes put smoke-free policies in place and what it takes to carry out that policy. Note that the management company, the apartment complex, and the property manager will not be identified by name in any of the information we use for this study.

This research will be conducted on CDC’s behalf by: 1) Healthy Housing Solutions, a research and evaluation firm that specializes in how the homes we live in affect children’s and adults’ health; 2) Westat, a survey research firm; and 3) the Los Angeles Department of Public Health’s Tobacco Control and Prevention Program.

If you agree that <COMPLEX NAME AND ADDRESS> may participate in this research effort, please convey that permission to your property manager by phone, email, fax, or letter. Please also instruct the property manager to provide a copy of this permission to the Field Data Collector at the interview.

We would like to thank you in advance for your cooperation in this important health study. If you have any questions, please contact ________________________ or ____________________________.

Sincerely,