We never know when we might fall ill while away from home, become incapacitated in a motor vehicle accident or even a mass-casualty incident.

To help emergency officials contact a victim’s loved ones, there is a new system called ICE. The “In Case of Emergency” campaign encourages cell phone users to program emergency-contact information into their phones under the ICE listing.

This could allow emergency responders and hospital staffs to access contacts and quickly alert family or friends.

It also might help rescuers obtain vital medical information about a patient who cannot convey the information himself. ICE could provide details about a victim’s medical history, medications which could interact with drugs administered in the ambulance or emergency room, and even allergies.

ICE is free and easy to use, but it’s not foolproof. Password-protected cell phones might prohibit access to the information, or an accident might render a cell phone inoperable.

Nevertheless, the nonprofit New Jersey State First Aid Council, which represents more than 20,000 emergency medical services (EMS) volunteers throughout New Jersey, endorses the ICE campaign and urges Garden State residents to use it. It could help save precious time and lives.

David Schimmel

director of Mobilization and Disaster Services

New Jersey State First Aid Council

Wayne

Rent control needed for affordable housing

Save for Hawaii, New Jersey has the highest average rents in the country. High market-rate rents combined with an acute housing shortage operate to render the costs of housing unaffordable to many middle-income residents, whether now living in or contemplating a job-related move to New Jersey.

The Mount Laurel court rulings have not solved the large and growing need for affordable housing. Builders urge the continued obliteration of open space and a family in every chicken coop.

But the purpose of affordable housing is not to make builders richer and destroy open space.

The object is to provide quality housing at a price the average worker and working family can afford, based on real wages.

That Mount Laurel has failed does not mean that all state housing policy must fail or that affordable housing in New Jersey is an unattainable goal.

With the U.S. entry into World War II came the need to control wartime inflation. It occurred to the national government that to permit war profiteering and speculation, housing shortages, street evictions, and unreasonably high rents should not stand while American soldiers were fighting and dying for the cause of liberty.

Thus, a comprehensive, nationwide system of price controls, including the regulation of rental housing, went into effect. Price controls worked. At the end of the war, they were abandoned. Only New York has maintained a system of rent regulation, and it has served the people well for 60 years.

New Jersey residents and affordable housing advocates would do well to consider, and our state representatives to enact, the one and only algorithm that works: rent regulation.

Louis A. Novellino

Middletown

Replace lawn with a butterfly meadow

The “dog days” of summer have arrived. And if you’re like most of us, the beautiful green lawn you admired this spring is probably turning brown, at least in some spots.

Lawn grasses are cool-season plants that look great in spring and fall, but are almost impossible to care for during summer heat since they cannot tolerate drought, heat or high humidity.

During mid-summer, grass blades and roots become stressed, succumbing to insects, fungi and dehydration. Watering only encourages the fungi, insects and crabgrass, which are specifically adapted to prosper during these “dog days” of August.

And fighting these forces will cost a fortune in chemicals and water. Even when the chemical assault is successful, which is rare, if a big thunderstorm hits, all those chemicals end up in the nearest stream, slowly poisoning the critters.

There is another option: convert a significant portion of your landscape to a warm season grass and wildflower butterfly meadow. Choose the sunniest area of your yard, where grass is nearly impossible to maintain, and plant a perennial wildflower meadow. There are numerous native plant nurseries that sell hardy plugs of native, drought-tolerant grasses and wildflowers. Native seed mixes specially designed for dry, sunny soils are also available.

Be sure to use some of the most drought-tolerant, long-lived perennial species that attract butterflies and birds and use native shrubs as a backdrop or border.

While planning and ordering your plants, start to prepare your site, establishing your meadow. It will basically involve several rounds of rototilling from mid-August until early October, and sprinkling the site with water if rain is very infrequent.

You can then plant all the seeds and plugs that you have assembled. Lightly rake the new meadow, being careful not to injure any of your new plants. Never fertilize the meadow, as native wildflowers don’t need it, and fertilizer just encourages typical lawn weeds.

Cover the site with a fine layer of salt hay, which is free of weed seeds, to protect the site from excessive erosion during the winter. Once you’re done, just sit back and watch the meadow develop. From now on during August, enjoy goldfinches and butterflies!

Michele Byers

executive director

New Jersey Conservation Foundation

Far Hills

Ban on smoking in autos is over the top

Driving and smoking in New Jersey can be very dangerous. By themselves, each one can be life threatening, and together, could be a recipe for disaster.

As the most densely populated state in the nation, our roadways are becoming increasingly more congested. For our safety, we need everyone concentrating and limiting distractions at the wheel.

But a pending bill in the state legislature goes a little too far.

The bill under discussion proposes to prohibit smoking while operating a vehicle.

I am not a fan of government dictating how we should live and this bill seems a little over the top. I do believe that New Jersey must continue to make our roadways safer but this proposal doesn’t come with any built in guarantees.

As a former smoker, I sympathize with those afflicted with the habit.

But it is unlikely that by removing a person’s right to smoke in their car that it would lessen their dependence on cigarettes. There are many smokers in New Jersey and asking our police officers to enforce this ban might be cumbersome. Already, police are asked to enforce a myriad of driving violations and this only adds to their difficult tasks.

While the penalty is not draconian, no one needs to have drivers fumbling around their car, trying to stamp out their pipe or cigarette.

Under Bill 4306, a driver cannot be pulled over for smoking while driving but it can be assessed as a secondary action when the operator has been detained. A person that violates the law will be subject to a fine not less than $100 but not more than $250 and no points would be assessed.

It would be an added cost to an already expensive habit.

Of far greater concern, are the cigarette butts that our drivers fail to dispose of properly. Every year, our highways and beaches are cluttered with cigarette butts and these continue to the destruction of our environment.

I would spend our resources on attacking the problem of litter on our roadways, and focus on preventing our children from ever picking up a cigarette.

Finally, I am concerned where this bill may lead. Once we prohibit smoking in cars, what comes next? Will our backyards and bedrooms be the next target of the Legislature’s aim to stop smoking?

While the goals of the bill are admirable — to cut down on smoking — this measure is off base. We need to help our smokers reform their habits, but we can’t start invading the privacy of our citizens.

Steve Corodemus

assemblyman

Legislative District 11

Youth helpline seeking great volunteers

When was the last time you helped a young child or teen handle a problem or think through ways to address a tough challenge? And, when was the last time that a young person said “thank you” for your advice?

We know that many parents have conversations like these. Yet sometimes young people need to reach out to others for assistance. The professionals and trained volunteers at the 2nd Floor Youth helpline help kids each and every day.

2nd Floor is a program of the award-winning nonprofit agency 180, Turning Lives Around.

Over 3,000 youths from throughout greater Monmouth County have called our toll-free number, 888-222-2228, since September 2004. As of July 12, over 6,300 kids have visited our Web site, www.2ndfloor.org, to learn about resources, signup for free orange wristbands or learn how to participate in our quarterly creative art and writing projects that illustrate answers to interesting and fun questions.

Thousands of our 2nd Floor wristbands have been distributed at Monmouth Mall, at community fairs and meetings and throughout the schools.

Our 2nd Floor team is looking for more volunteers to join us in listening compassionately to the concerns of children and teens.

The topics of relationship roles, self-esteem, bullying, family, abuse, dating, peer pressure and more are often raised by these young callers.

Adults interested in volunteering can contact 2nd Floor coordinator Cindi Westendorf at (732) 787-6503 or go to our Web site and submit an electronic form to sign up and volunteer. Training is provided, and flexible volunteer shifts are available to accommodate your schedule, seven days a week from 9 a.m. to midnight.

Thank you to the Greater Media Newspapers for sharing information on our program via news stories.

Thank you to all the Monmouth County school districts that have opened the door to 2nd Floor, and in particular Matawan-Aberdeen School District, and Colts Neck High School for helping to create 2nd Floor’s Youth advisor committees. And thank you to community organizations including the Girl Scouts, the Boy Scouts, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Asbury Park, the YMCA of Western Monmouth and all our community partners who are supporting our mission.

Together, we will help young people address their challenges in order to fulfill their dreams.

Sue Kozel

Cream Ridge section of

Upper Freehold