This article appeared in the Wichita Eagle.
TOPEKA – As state health officials advocated a statewide smoking ban this week, some opponents pointed to Wichita.
The city adopted a partial ban in September, prohibiting smoking in businesses that allow children. Bars that don’t admit children can still allow smoking. Smoking also is allowed in restaurants that have an enclosed smoking room with a separate ventilation system.
The partial ban, said Wichita bar owner Larry Doss, is preferable to a complete ban. The Kansas Restaurant and Hospitality Association and the Kansas Licensed Beverage Association also testified against the bill and advocated an alternative that looks more like Wichita’s plan.
“The decisions I make are in response to my customers, because they vote with their pocketbooks,” Doss, who owns Walt’s Sports Bar and Grill, told the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee on Thursday. He chose to allow smoking when Wichita’s partial ban went into effect.
But health advocates — who also proposed increasing the tax on cigarettes by 75 cents to $1.54 a pack — say a complete ban is needed in public places for health reasons. It’s the top policy goal for health officials this year.
“It’s no-cost health care reform for Kansas,” said Mary Jayne Hellebust, executive director of Tobacco Free Kansas Coalition. She estimated the state has paid $200 million a year through Medicaid for tobacco related illnesses.
Molly Johnson of Wichita, a student at the University of Kansas, came to appreciate Lawrence’s smoking ban when she worked in restaurants there.
She noticed her asthma improved when she wasn’t around second-hand smoke in Lawrence, she told the committee. But it got worse when she would visit Wichita, before the city adopted its smoking ban.
“I don’t have to carry a rescue inhaler anymore,” she told senators.
The committee held two days of hearings on Senate Bill 25. Lawmakers are scheduled to vote on the bill next week, said Sen. Jim Barnett, R-Emporia, the chairman of the committee.
Most people didn’t question the health benefits of not smoking, but businesses — particularly bar and restaurant owners — worry that a ban would hurt their livelihood.
If smoking is so harmful, lawmakers should just ban tobacco altogether, tavern owner Sheila Martin of Hutchinson said.
“Either they are that bad or they are not that bad,” she said.
According to the Center for Disease Control’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, 18 percent of Kansas adults smoked in 2007 compared with 20 percent nationwide. That is down from 2000, when 21 percent of Kansas adults smoked compared with 23 percent of adults nationwide.
At least 17 Kansas cities ban or partially ban smoking, including Wichita, Derby, Maize and Bel Aire.
About half the states ban smoking indoors in public places, including Nebraska and Colorado.
“Other states have not collapsed under the weight of smoking bans,” said Joyce Morrison, who represented Clean Air Kansas.
Louie Riederer, who owns five Jonny’s Taverns in Johnson County, originally opposed a statewide smoking ban, but testified this week in favor of the bill.
It levels the playing field, he said.
“Smoking restrictions in Johnson County went into effect a year ago. While business initially went down, it has come back,” he said.
The Kansas Health Policy Authority said the proposed tax increase on cigarettes could raise $87.36 million in fiscal year 2010, which starts July 1. The authority hopes to use the money to pay for health initiatives, including expanding health coverage for low income families.
Will the businesses be reimbursed for the thousands of dollars they invested to accommotade smokers? The only way many small Chicago bars survive is by ignoring the ban. After a year and a cold winter, it’s fading into forgotten history
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If it doesn’t affect business, why is a “level playing field” needed, expalin yourself.
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