Group says it's pro-health, not anti-smoker

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By Bobbi Mlynar (Contact)

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Proponents of a clean-air ordinance have made smoking cessation a component of their proposal to prohibit smoking here in buildings to which the public has access.

“We don’t want to make smokers feel that we’re targeting them,” said Teresa Walters, director of Emporians for Drug Awareness and a proponent of the Clean Air Emporia movement. “We know that some people are going to have to change their lifestyles.”

The group was organized through a grant under the auspices of EDA.

Clean Air Emporia wants all of those buildings to be free from second-hand smoke and “blow-by” smoke, the smoke that a cigarette or cigar emits when it is not being inhaled by a smoker. It’s a project intended to protect the health of non-smokers, rather than punish smokers.

Cessation is the third of the three-pronged campaign, which has begun with education and awareness and soon will move on to proposing a non-smoking ordinance to the city commission.

Bobbi Sauder, leader of the Clean Air group, anticipates that smoking-cessation programs already established in the area will make the programs available to people who want to quit smoking, rather than creating new programs. The women also recommended that smokers who want to quit call the Kansas Tobacco Quit Line, (866) KAN STOP ((866) 526-7867), for quitting tips geared specially toward individual smokers’ habits.

Sauder and Walters are pleased with the progress the group has made in educating the public and making them aware of the dangers of second-hand smoke.

“We’re going to be kicking it up a notch,” Walters said in an interview earlier this month. “We’ve really got a good plan in place to try to reach people and let them know that we’re not just trying to pick on smokers, it’s everyone’s health.”

The local group was one of six that the Kansas Health Foundation has chosen to be provided services of a Wichita marketing agency for its education and awareness campaign.

Proponents of clean air ordinances and laws are concerned about the chemicals and known carcinogens that result from both smoking and from the burning cigarette itself.

“The toxic chemicals that are in that smoke are not being filtered,” Sauder said. “You’re breathing more of a raw smoke, so to speak, than you are when smokers inhale the smoke coming through the cigarette.”

Second-hand and blow-by smoke causes physiological changes in non-smokers who are forced to breathe the air around them.

“It may not cause lung cancer, but it’s causing a change in your airway that can certainly suggest many other kinds of illnesses and can change your airway permanently,” Sauder said. “We know it changes your blood vessels. We know that the nicotine changes the cholesterol, it changes the constriction, the flow of the blood in your body.

“We didn’t have that knowledge 20, 30, 40 years ago. I think that’s one thing that leads us to protect all human beings, because of the knowledge that we have today.”

Clean Air Emporia and the agency have created brochures, fact sheets, and other materials with information and statistics gleaned from a variety of health-related organizations. Several thousand signatures have been obtained in support of a petition that will be submitted in support of the proposed ordinance.

Among the information is a list of local businesses that already have chosen to be smoke-free. Governmental buildings already prohibit smoking, other than in designated areas; other entities, such as Newman Regional Health and the Emporia school district, have banned smoking inside buildings, as well on their entire properties.

If Clean Air Emporia’s campaign is successful, smoking would be prohibited in these types of places:

F all businesses that are open to the public

F private clubs, such as the American Legion and Knights of Columbus

F private offices within buildings that are open to the public

“The ordinance that we are focusing toward is a comprehensive ordinance that will have clean air in all buildings, interior buildings,” Sauder said. “Any (structure) that has confined walls, four walls and a ceiling, a roof.”

Business people likely would be able to set limits for smoking within a certain number of feet of a door to the business.

“Almost all ordinances have been within 10 or 30 feet that there could be no smoking,” Sauder said.

Smoking would be allowed in vehicles, in private homes and on public streets, unless smoking violated a distance-from-the-door requirement.

“What we want is complete elimination of the smoke in any public place,” Walters said.

The ordinance needs to be clear, she said, “so people can’t skirt around ... and expose people to high levels of smoke.”

“I think there’s still plenty of places that people can smoke where they feel like they’re only exposing themselves, like in their own home,” Walters said. “But I think in a public place where everyone can have access to it and not be exposed to carcinogens and things like that, that’s why we want a level playing field.”

Those involved in the clean-air campaign said that health issues are the core of their campaign for change, and that the hospitality industry is of particular interest. Many of those employees, they said, are students who take jobs without realizing that they may be placing themselves in an unhealthy situation. Health issues brought about by those jobs may not become evident for years.

“They may not have any idea of what they’re really getting into, but it comes down to ‘I need a job,’” Sauder, a former nurse, explained.

Hospitality-business owners later may face liability for exposing employees to second-hand smoke, Walters said.

The industry is the “only business I can think of where ... we make them make that choice, essentially be able to have a job and earn the money to make a living ... but then acknowledge that their health has been put in danger,” she said. “I think that’s kind of ludicrous myself.”

The women cited other cities — Lawrence, several in the Kansas City area, New York, Dublin and Chicago — where no-smoking rules have gone into effect without harming business. They cite instances, such as that of a Lawrence bowling alley, where customer traffic actually increased, much to the surprise of the business owner.

Bar and restaurant owners who worry their businesses will shrink or die also may be surprised by an increase in customers.

In Lawrence, when the city’s no-smoking ordinance went into effect in 2004, there were 84 businesses holding licenses for serving alcohol, “strong” beer and wines on-premises; in 2008, the number had jumped to 128, according to statistics from the Kansas Department of Revenue, which licenses bars, as well as the restaurants and private clubs that also are considered on-premise licensees.

Emporia currently has 30 state-issued licenses for on-premise consumption of alcohol.

Licenses for taverns, which serve 3.2 beers called cereal malt beverages, are issued by local governmental units and include not only taverns, but off-premise businesses such as grocery and convenience stores.

The women said that numerous Emporia businesses already have gone smoke-free over the years, and more have been added since the campaign began taking form.

“I know that particularly one car dealership has gone totally smoke-free,” Sauder said. “I know that some of the gas stations have gone smoke-free. ... There have been several businesses just within the last month that have gone smoke-free in Emporia.”

To be added to the list of smoke-free businesses, or to obtain a copy of the list, call the Flint Hills Community Health Center, 342-4864, or EDA, 341-2450.

Members of Clean Air Emporia are available to make presentations to any interested group. They may be reached at 341-2450.