Testing It Up

Officials in Boise, Idaho, are looking into making changes to existing state laws governing bans against smoking.

The city council is considering instituting a ban against smoking in bars, home-based businesses, tobacco shops, and other establishments where people congregate.

If the proposed Smoke Free Air Ordinances are approved, the new restrictions will be implemented on top of existing smoking bans in the state. At this time, Idaho state laws ban smoking in public areas, including restaurants, elevators, and the majority of work places. The entire campus of Boise State University, for instance, is smoke-free.

According to the city administration, these proposed ordinances have public support, based on the results of a Boise City Citizen Survey conducted in 2010, which indicated that 70 percent of the city’s residents are amenable to a ban against smoking in all indoor public areas.

There are those, however, who disagree. Stan Minder, owner of Hannifin’s Cigar Shop, shared that he would like his customers to enjoy conversations, as well as tobacco: “People come in, ask if they can smoke, sit down, and read a magazine… So many places have banned smoking already; when people come into a smoke shop, they know what they’re coming into.”

Anti-smoking advocates in Boise have been working on implementing a ban against smoking for several years, but most bars where the city wishes to regulate smoking, like Hannigan’s, are against the ban. Such a move, they point out, will hurt the ambience of their businesses.

Smoking and its harmful effects to the body is not just a national concern for Americans, but more a global concern in practically all corners of the world. One of the more common ways that governments are addressing this issue is through smoking bans, and the latest country to join the battle against smoking, based on various news reports, is China.

According to a Xinhua news report, a regulation issued by China’s Ministry of Health implements a ban against smoking in all enclosed public locations, commencing on May 1st. These locations include hotels, restaurants, theaters, and waiting rooms at railway stations and airports.

China reportedly has an estimated 300 million regular smokers, according to experts. The number of people who are routinely exposed to secondhand smoke, meanwhile, was pegged at more than 700 million.

Yang Gonghuan, the director of the National Office of Tobacco Control in China, shared the following statement regarding the responsibility of business owners with regards to the smoking ban: “It is realistic to demand a bigger role for these business owners in dissuading smokers.”

The regulation calls for the setting up of prominent non-smoking signs in business establishments, by its owners. Owners are also called on to hold promotional activities that will warn people against the dangers of smoking; employees, on the other hand, are to be encouraged to convince people against lighting up.

In addition, outdoor smoking areas should be placed such that these do not obstruct pedestrian walkways, while public places will not have cigarette vending machines.

North Carolina may be one of the last states where one would expect to see a smoking ban implemented, but the state ushered in the New Year by doing just that.

North Carolina has always been known as a tobacco-growing state, with a history that goes back to just after the Civil War. It is the largest tobacco-producing state in the country, and the state’s tobacco industry provides quite a slice of the tax revenue pie. There are 255,000 tobacco-related jobs in North Carolina, a figure that is equivalent to 40% of the nation’s total according to information provided by the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

The law passed in North Carolina is a scaled back version of the 100% smoking ban that prevails in other states. The law exempts cigar bars and country clubs but bans smoking in bars and restaurants.

The move is considered as a “huge victory” by the Washington-based advocacy organization Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, as expressed by its Regional Director Amy Barkley.

As expected, tobacco firms were against the law, saying that businesses should be given the freedom to choose to go smoke-free or not. For some bar and restaurant owners in North Carolina who have wanted to ban smoking from their establishments for quite some time, the ban is a welcome relief as they will no longer have to contend with irate customers as they remove ashtrays from tables and put up no smoking signs. Fines for smokers who violate the ban can be up to $50, while errant bars and restaurants can be fined up to $200.

Still, there are business owners who cater to smoking clientele who are not too happy about the implementation of the smoking ban.

By researching and studying waiters and waitresses who work in bars, clubs and restaurants who have been affected by the no smoking ban in Spain it’s been found that the restriction as a method of encouraging cessation has had some success. 5% of those who smoked in 2006 when the law was passed have since quit and 9% have reduced the amount and frequency of smoking they’ve taken part in since that time. Researchers from the Catalan Institute of Oncology have proven through their study that thus method does have some success at reducing nicotine addiction.  In fact it’s believed that the law has halved the number of smokers in Spain since the law first took effect three years ago.

The greater rate of smoking cessation and reduction is among those who work in businesses that no longer allow smoking on the premises and conduct nicotine testing on the regular basis. 431 employees were studied in the three years since the ban started all of whom worked in the restaurant and bar trades and half of which were smokers.