In January 2012, anti-smoking advocates were touting the results of a just-completed poll — and hoping the Indiana General Assembly would pass a statewide workplace smoking ban.
According to that poll of 500 Hoosiers, 70 percent of Indiana voters supported a law that would prohibit smoking in indoor workplaces and public facilities, including restaurants and bars.
Lawmakers did — and didn’t. Then-Gov. Mitch Daniels signed a bill restricting smoking, a first for the state. But the law exempted bars, casinos, retail tobacco shops and private clubs, such as veterans and fraternal organizations. A smoking ban, it was not.
State Rep. Charlie Brown, D-Indianapolis, proposes to change that. His plan, House Bill 1313, would do what the Kokomo Common Council tried to do in 2014, when it passed to second read an amendment to its own smoking “ban” of 2006. The amendment would’ve included all bars, taverns and social clubs under the existing ordinance that prohibits smoking in public buildings.
The Kokomo amendment passed in August 2014 by the slimmiest of margins — 5 to 4 — but was defeated by one vote during the Sept. 8, 2014, council meeting. Former council member Kevin Summers flipped his vote from “yes” in August to “no” in September.
Hoosiers should urge the Legislature not to bow to the claims of businesses arguing such a ban would hurt them financially, just as they did in 2012 and the Kokomo city council did in 2014, and amend the ordinance. Results from Gallup’s 2015 Consumption Habits Poll found 58 percent of respondents favored making smoking in all public places totally illegal. What’s more, 24 percent of those polled wanted to ban smoking outright, “twice the level in 2007 and the highest ever found in Gallup surveys,” reported Justin McCarthy for Gallup.
It’s time for a statewide smoking ban in public buildings, as state Rep. Charlie Brown proposes — no exceptions.