Smoking ban still stuck in deadlock

A Pennsylvania committee deadlocked on a proposed bill this summer that would ban smoking in… A Pennsylvania committee deadlocked on a proposed bill this summer that would ban smoking in most public places, including bars, restaurants and sports arenas.

The House Health and Human Services Committee voted 14-14 on the bill, just one vote short of sending it to the full House of Representatives for consideration. Rep. Susan E. Cornell, R-Philadelphia, proposed the bill but could not be reached for comment.

Proponents of the Clean Indoor Air Act stated in the bill that the Environmental Protection Agency places secondhand tobacco smoke in the same classification as many lethal environmental hazards. Supporters of the bill hope this prospective law will protect both smokers and non-smokers in Pennsylvania from the harmful effects of contaminated air.

Some representatives, such as Rep. Michael Diven, R-Allegheny, who voted against the bill, felt that smaller businesses would suffer from the loss of tobacco products.

“Everyone is aware of the health risks,” Diven said, “but we have to be cogent of small businesses.”

Diven said that he would eventually support a smoking ban for Pennsylvania, but he and other state representatives wanted to model the Clean Indoor Air Act after a similar bill that was recently passed in Philadelphia.

According to Diven, representatives in Philadelphia voted in favor of a smoking ban that made exemptions for tobacco-based businesses and for bars and restaurants where food accounted for less than 10 percent of their revenue.

“It was an idea that we thought would help the smaller, mom-and-pop businesses,” Diven said.

But according to Cindy Thomas, the executive director of Tobacco Free Allegheny, many states, including New York, Delaware and New Jersey, have enacted smoking bans that have had little to no impact on local businesses.

Thomas said that California was the first state to institute a smoking ban, and after other states saw the new law’s success, many other states followed.

“It’s just a trend,” Thomas said. “People are seeing that they’re successful and they work.”

Instead of hurting local businesses, Thomas said that states have seen an immediate reduction in hospital admissions, especially for cardiovascular problems and asthma.

Thomas also said that exposure to secondhand smoke can cause a number of cardiovascular problems – such as a quicker heartbeat – that can be solved simply by lessening the number of carcinogens in the air.

“When the exposure [to smoke] stops,” Thomas said, “some symptoms stop immediately.”

Presently, businesses in Pennsylvania can choose to be either a smoking or a non-smoking establishment, but Thomas now feels that the decision to ban smoking in public places should come from the state or the community.

According to Thomas, recent statistics from the Surgeon General and other activist organizations show that separate seating areas in restaurants and most ventilation systems are not enough to protect people from secondhand smoke.

“We had that approach, the voluntary choice,” Thomas said. “It’s appropriate to take action if necessary.”

But some business owners would disagree.

John Elavsky, the owner of Hemmingway’s Cafe, knows that most of his customers would not support the ban. He estimated that at least half of his customers smoke and said that he has never received a complaint about it in the ten years that he has owned the bar.

“It’s a decision for individual businesses to make,” Elavsky said. “If your customers wanted your place to be non-smoking, fine, make your place non-smoking. My customers wouldn’t [want the place to be non-smoking].”

Elavsky also heard that proponents of the bill are saying that the ban will mainly protect employees that work in a smoking environment – a statement that he calls “silly,” considering that most restaurant employees smoke.

“I myself am a non-smoker,” Elavsky said. “I’ve never put a cigarette in my mouth and the smoke doesn’t bother me.”

Elavsky, who said Hemmingway’s has non-smoking sections and smoke eaters – ventilation systems that filter out smoke – insisted that the air in his bar was clean, although he said he had heard people complain about the smoke in other bars and restaurants.

His advice to those businesses: “Go buy a smoke eater.”

Nevertheless, people like Thomas and other members of her organization are doing everything they can to stop both first and second-hand smoke.

TFA – a nonprofit group working to reduce the number of tobacco users in Allegheny County – sponsors a number of programs designed to help smokers break the habit.

While the program does not work with people under the age of 18, TFA has worked with colleges like Pitt and Carlow University. Most people who the program helps fall between the ages of 24-45, with annual quit rates averaging about 30 percent.

“It may not sound high, but it is,” said Thomas, who said that while many people try to quit in a variety of different ways, the best success comes when people combine counseling with a nicotine replacement patch.

She is currently trying to convince legislators to enact a smoking ban for Allegheny County even if representatives don’t enact a smoking ban for all of Pennsylvania.

According to Thomas, local representatives will consider the smoking ban and bring it to the vote sometime in late September.