People Ban: AR Smoking Ban Fallout

June 10, 2007

A legislative panel in Little Rock was discussing Arkansas’ tobacco cessation programs last Wednesday when one lawmaker argued for leaving smokers alone.

“Why can’t you just let me die in my way? It is still a democracy,” said state Rep. Billy Gaskill, D-Paragould.

The Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review Committee of the state Legislative Council was reviewing contracts including one for the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences to provide a toll-free hotline to Arkansans who want help to stop smoking.

“When does this get to be overkill?” Gaskill asked. “Let me tell you something. As long as we have wars in this world, we’re going to have young men that smoke. That’s where I started smoking – in the sands of the South Pacific, waiting to get the hell shot out of me, and I’d rather smoke a cigarette.”

Gaskill added, “Leave me alone.”

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Smokers Can Light Up Again at One Region 8 Restaurant

November 14, 2006

JONESBORO, AR — With the passage of the Arkansas Clean Indoor Act, restaurants across Region 8 went smokeless earlier this summer.? Now one eatery in Jonesboro is telling customers they can light up again.

The Milky Way on Gee Street in Jonesboro will soon be only the fourth place in the state where you can legally smoke while eating dinner.? While those younger than 21 will no longer be admitted inside to eat, owners say they are just giving customers back a choice.

The Milky Way has been in business in Jonesboro since 1954 and since then they’ve served countless burgers, fries and shakes.? But on December 1st a man by the name of Clem Morgan will take over the business and the Milky Way will become the Smoker’s Cafe…a first for the city of Jonesboro.

“There is a need for this, people are upset, they’ve got to go outside in the rain and the cold and everything else and I don’t think its right. So we are giving them a place to come,” said Morgan.

Smoker Clem Morgan has worked in the tobacco industry for 30 years and now he’s trying his hand in food services.? Providing an outlet for restaurant smokers in Region 8.

“There is a need for it.? 35% of the adults in Arkansas smoke and with 35% of them smoking, we know we are not going to get the non-smokers or the families but we do have a drive through window.? If our food is going to be good enough, people will come get it anyway,” said Morgan.

New menu items won’t be the only changes in store for next months re-opening.

“All entrances and exits of the restaurant will be posted.? They will be checked when they come into the restaurant for verification of their age so that is how we will monitor and make sure no one under the age of 21 is in,” said new manager Mike Gipson.

“If they come, that’s fine.? If not that’s there choice, but that is what this country was founded on is choice and that’s what I’m giving the people. They have a choice,” said Morgan.

Opening day for Smoker’s Cafe will be December 4th and Morgan says the first chance to light up starting at 5:00 a.m.

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Legislature makes dining out for adults only

Aug 5, 2006

It’s a shame businesses are being forced to become adults-only establishments when the only “adult” thing going on is smoking.

Since the Legislature and our healthier-than-thou governor decided to take steps banning smoking in most places, people have been hot and bothered. Now that the ban’s gone into effect, people are finding out just how dumb some aspects of it are.

Now, let me be clear up front. I’m not a hard-core anti-smoking type. I figure if folks want to suck down mass quantities of tar, nicotine and whatever else, that’s their business. (It’s the exhaling that presents the problem.)

If a business wants to allow smoking, that’s its prerogative, at least it used to be. If you don’t want to go where there’s smoking, don’t go there. If you don’t want to work around smoking, find a job where there’s not any.

Just use your head and think, although for some that might be a stressful process.

It’s not that way in Arkansas any more, and as a result some businesses are having to make decisions they shouldn’t have to make. Such as banning children.

I’m not talking about those places you don’t talk about in family newspapers, the kind with activities featured in those “Girls Gone Stupid” videos or other “adult” offerings. I’m not even talking about bars or places obviously for grownups.

Ironically, with the loopholes the Legislature left in place I can take my 10-year-old Amelia to some bars as long as they’re smoke-free.

I just can’t take her to family restaurants that choose to allow smoking through those same loopholes.

Why should any business be forced to make such a choice? Yet thanks to the Legislature, that’s what is happening. So far, it isn’t as much widescale as as it is inconvenient and irritating.

One of my first thoughts on learning a restaurant had become adults-only so it could allow smoking was that we could still go there. We’d just take a lawn chair and folding tray for Amelia, and let her dine on the sidewalk by the window so we could watch her.

Then I thought no, this is a decision the business was cornered into making by the Legislature. It, and others, had to decide which part of their customer base to alienate and which to keep. Either way, they lose customers.

Businesses shouldn’t be placed in that position. I don’t blame the businesses. I blame the Legislature and Governor Huck.

Theoretically, the smoking ban was to improve workplace health conditions, especially in places such as restaurants and bars. In reality, it’s another step in the effort to further reduce smoking, and it should have been treated that way.

More accurately, it’s an attempt by the government to govern personal habits.

If that’s what the ultimate goal is, to tell people what habits they can have, then the Legislature and governor should take off the gloves and just ban public smoking altogether. That’s what they want anyway.

Again, I’m not rabidly anti-smoking, even as a former puffer. Tobacco still is legal to use, possess and buy, and people have the right to do all three. At least for now.

But if the Legislature wants to knuckle down on smoking, it should knuckle down, or back off.

Speaking strictly as a devil’s advocate, if the Legislature really wants to get serious about controlling smoking, here are a what some might consider draconian ideas:

If you’re going to curb public smoking, ban smoking in any place accessible to the public, no matter what it is or where it is. Parking lots, parks, ball fields, any place open to the public would be declared totally smoke-free. It would be the same as the laws against drinking in public.

For tighter controls, require a special license for any business that wants to sell tobacco products, just as is required for any business selling alcohol products. No license, no tobacco sales. And, while we’re theorizing about how the Legislature could get tough on tobacco, establish a licensing process similar to that for businesses that want to sell alcohol.

No tobacco sales to anyone younger than 21 — period — and make possession under 21 illegal, just like alcohol. And treat enforcement just as seriously.
Folks don’t seem upset at the controls on alcohol, so applying those same controls to tobacco seems reasonable if the government insists on trying to control personal habits.

In the meantime, you’d think if businesses have to become adults-only enterprises they’d at least have something a little more risqu? than cigarettes and “Omelets Gone Wild.”

Sonny Garrett is editorial page editor ofThe Baxter Bulletin and a member of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists

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No smoking on job

Arkansas clean air measure banning tobacco use in workplaces takes effect today

By Pamela Perkins
July 21, 2006

Complimentary ashtrays will be taken away.
“No Smoking” signs will be tacked to walls.

And, as the smoke clears, businesses will brace for the impact as a law that bans smoking in workplaces goes into effect today, when Arkansas joins a growing number of states broadening smoke-free laws.

“I’ll have to explain to people this isn’t my doing. It’s an Arkansas state law,” said Donna Aguirre, owner of the Eagle Lanes bowling alley in West Memphis. She doesn’t look forward to imposing the new law. “It will have a bad effect on me.”

The Arkansas Clean Indoor Air Act bans smoking inside most workplaces, including restaurants, that allow customers under 21. It also affects government vehicles, such as law enforcement patrol cars.

The ban will include the bowling alley, an all-ages entertainment center that also has video games and pool tables, food and beer, and a haze of secondhand smoke that hangs from the ceiling on busy days.

“I have teenagers. But most of my people who come in here are older people,” Aguirre said. “They drink beer. When they drink, naturally they want to smoke.”

Arkansas lawmakers approved the ban in April, before Surgeon General Richard Carmona’s report last month that found secondhand smoke kills about 50,000 people each year.

According to the American Lung Association, all 50 states and the District of Columbia limit smoking in certain places.

Arkansas joins the District of Columbia and 12 other states that ban smoking in just about all workplaces, restaurants and bars.

Mississippi lawmakers banned smoking in all publicly owned and leased buildings as of July 1.

In Tennessee, a law that bans smoking in most state-owned and operated buildings became effective last month, and will be applied to state prisons on July 1, 2007.

Arkansas’ new law exempts some hotels, some bars, tobacco shops and nursing homes as well as businesses with fewer than three employees if they are not open to the public.

The law also allows smoking in designated areas at the state’s two racetracks, including Southland Greyhound Park in West Memphis.

Any employer, employee or other citizen who violates the ban could be fined up to $1,000. Criminal penalties range from $100 to $500 per violation.

The Coalition for a Tobacco Free Arkansas encourages diners to patronize Arkansas restaurants today to support the new law.

The new law has its detractors, of course. “They’re slowly winning, getting their smoking bans in the Southeast. It’s getting pretty bad like in California where you can’t even smoke out in public,” said Robert Pritchard of Maryville, Tenn., southeast regional director for the smokers rights group The Smokers Club Inc.

“They don’t like secondhand smoke, even though they have a bigger choice than us where to go out to eat,” said Pritchard. “If a place I eat at once or twice a month goes without smoking, then I ain’t gonna go back there.”

Ron Brinkley, owner of Ron’s Family Affair restaurant in West Memphis, isn’t too worried about that. He banned smoking in his restaurant about a year and a half ago.

“I’ve had people to get up and leave when other people would be sitting at one table fogging up the whole area,” Brinkley said. “I think it’s more positive than negative.”

Aguirre said her worry has been fueled by customers, particularly bowling league players.

“Some of the people on the leagues have talked to me about what are we gonna do,” she said. “I know the legislature passed it. But they never put it before us as business owners. I don’t think it would have passed.”

— Pamela Perkins: 529-6514

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Smoking Ban Starts Friday Regardless of Opposition

JULY 20, 2006
Marsha Mays

Arkansas’ new smoking ban takes effect Friday, July 21. Cigarette smoking will be banned in workplaces, with only some exceptions and those workplaces include restaurants. The new law exempts certain establishments, including bars that do not allow anyone under the age of 21 on the premises.

Smoking is such a big part of so many restaurants across the state of Arkansas, but Friday, that’s won’t be the case.

“The smokers like to come in here, have a nice lunch and sit back and have a cigarette. Well, they’re not going to be able to do that anymore,” says Max Parnell, a waitress at The Right Place.

Max Parnell has been a waitress at The Right Place off Johnson Avenue for 8 years now. She says this new law won’t only affect her customers. It affects her and the other waitresses as well.

“The employees are kind of upset with it too, because we have to go at least 50 feet back behind the building to smoke our cigarettes. Rain, whatever, hot sun and everything else. It’s not right,” says Parnell.

Brenda Dupree has recently decided to quit smoking, but she strongly believes this smoking ban is the wrong choice.

“I’ve been a smoker for 35 years. I chose to quit smoking, but it was my choice. It wasn’t anybody telling me that I had to do this,” says Brenda Dupree, previous smoker against ban.

And she says that’s where the legislators are wrong. She says forcing people to make a decision is not the American way.

“I don’t think anybody has the right to step in and make judgment on what the rest of the town or the rest of the state has to do, without giving us a chance to make our own opinions,” says Dupree.

Cecil Goad says he’s tried to understand both sides.

“I know there are people that can’t stand smoke. My wife can’t, she’s allergic to it. We have to leave places because her eyes burn or her nose waters,” says Cecil Goad, a Jonesboro Resident.

But Goad says those who chose to smoke have rights too.

“I think they should have a place for people who smoke and people who don’t smoke,” says Goad.

Regardless, the decisions have been made and once the restaurants close Thursday night, smoking won’t be inside when they open Friday.

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Smoking Ban Set To Take Effect

July 17, 2006

A new wind will be blowing in Arkansas come Friday — but not everyone will be happy.

The Arkansas Clean Air Act of 2006 takes effect Friday, and while plenty of questions remain to be resolved, some impacts will be felt immediately.

The law prohibits smoking “in all public places and enclosed areas within places of employment.” That means that when you run out for dinner Friday night, the hostess no longer will greet you by asking, “Will that be smoking or nonsmoking?” Everyone will be sitting in nonsmoking now.

A few exemptions remain including workplaces with fewer than three employees, retail tobacco stores and tobacco wholesalers, and long-term care facilities where patient smoking is allowed.

Also exempted will be restaurants and bars that prohibit those younger than 21 and “outdoor areas of employment.”

Private residences are exempt in most cases, but smoking in cars for the first time will be limited as a result of a second new law.

The Arkansas Protection from Secondhand Smoke for Children Act of 2006 also becomes effective Friday.

It prohibits smoking in vehicles in which a child younger than 6 or smaller than 60 pounds — that is, a child required to ride in a car seat — is traveling.

The Arkansas Legislature passed both acts earlier this year during a special session called primarily to address school funding.

Passage of the acts was considered a victory for Gov. Mike Huckabee and other health advocates. Less happy were some restaurateurs, small-business owners and citizens who saw the acts as an unwarranted intrusion of government into the private sector.

The new Arkansas laws are neither the strictest not the most lax in the country. Some states — including the big tobacco states of Virginia, Kentucky and North and South Carolina — have no statewide restrictions. Some, like Maryland and Arizona, have regional or municipal restrictions. The state of Washington requires that those who step outside for a smoke keep stepping until they are at least 25 feet from any doorway, according to Smoke Free USA, which supports smoke-free businesses.

California was the first state to ban smoking in public places, in 1997, and earlier this year it was the first state to declare second-hand tobacco smoke a toxic air pollutant.

In March, the city of Calabasas enacted a smoking ban that includes many outdoor venues including parks, sidewalks and outdoor businesses, as reported in The Acorn, an online community newspaper in California.

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Governor battles irate callers over statewide smoking ban

Junw 8, 2006
By Aaron Sadler, Arkansas News Bureau

LITTLE ROCK – Arkansans angry with Gov. Mike Huckabee for supporting a workplace smoking ban lashed out at the governor on his radio call-in program Wednesday.

Huckabee fended off charges that his push for the impending smoking ban was “stupid” and “dishonest,” and that he had not upheld the duties of his office.

The governor was a staunch supporter of the Clean Indoor Air Act approved by the Legislature during an April special session. The law takes effect July 21, prohibiting smoking in nearly all workplaces.

One caller Wednesday said Huckabee was the Arkansas taxpayers “puppet” and should have listened to more of the state’s voters before signing the law.

Huckabee responded that the law is designed to protect the rights of other citizens. He cited a study that showed inhalation of second-hand smoke poses more of a health risk than if someone lights up a cigarette themselves.

Two callers applauded the new law as Huckabee talked up the act as a way to cut skyrocketing health care costs in the state.

“Why is it that a person has a right to infringe on somebody else’s airspace?” Huckabee asked during the hour-long show broadcast monthly on the Arkansas Radio Network. “That’s what the issue is. Do you have a right to smoke? Yes. Do you have a right to blow it on me? No.”

The act gained broad support in the Legislature. Huckabee lobbied hard for the measure before adding it to the agenda of a week-long special session on education.

Some callers Wednesday said it seemed to them that the urgency of adopting a smoking ban was inappropriate.

“You basically went behind the public’s back and forced that through and said you were going to shame any legislators and whatever who didn’t vote for it,” said a caller identified as P.J. from Little Rock. “Well, let me tell you something Mr. Governor, you violated your office.”

The caller said Arkansas voters should have decided on the smoking ban.

Huckabee cited a survey by Little Rock-based Opinion Research Associates that showed 65 percent of the state’s registered voters supported the smoke-free workplace measure.

“There was a clear, very thorough airing of this issue over a several-month period, and it’s incorrect to say the people didn’t have an opportunity to speak,” the governor said. ” … But the overwhelming majority of Arkansans don’t want to have someone else impose their habit upon them, whether it’s spitting or whether it’s vomiting or whether it’s smoking.”

Huckabee responded to one question by saying that he would support a ban on all cigarette sales in the state. Health care cost savings would more than make up for the loss of tax revenue, he said.

Arkansas collected $129.7 million in cigarette taxes in 2005.

The new anti-smoking law applies to all businesses, including restaurants. Establishments that do not allow patrons or employees younger than 21, and businesses with fewer than three employees, may be exempt from the law.

Two legislative committees on Tuesday endorsed Division of Health regulations for smoking ban enforcement. The new regulations provide for a civil penalty of up to $1,000 for violators, though health officials said they will issue warnings before issuing fines.

Asked by a caller Wednesday if the state would hire a “puff patrol” to enforce the ban, Huckabee said the state would not add employees.

Also Wednesday, Huckabee reiterated his call to refund to taxpayers a portion of a projected $332 million budget surplus.

He said last month he would support putting some of the money into a “rainy day” fund and distributing the rest to taxpayers as a rebate. A group of economic advisors will report to Huckabee by the end of the month about the best way to refund the money.

“I hope we can get some traction for that,” Huckabee told a caller. “I would urge you to contact your own local legislator and tell them you’d like to see your money returned to you.”

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Mercy urged when smoking ban starts

June 2, 2006
By Nell Smith

Legislators reviewing draft regulations for the new workplace smoking ban set to take effect July 21 asked Health Division officials to “show mercy” to businesses caught violating the law — at least for a little while.

“I guarantee you that a lot of these folks don’t even know there’s a smoking ban on,” Sen. Terry Smith, D-Hot Springs, said during a legislative committee hearing Thursday.

Businesses that do know about the ban, which prohibits smoking in most workplaces across the state, have peppered elected officials with questions about details of the law and proposed regulations.

For example, what if a restaurant customer smokes in the business’s bathroom, would the restaurant owner be fined, Sen. Jimmy Jeffress, D-Crossett, wanted to know. Under the proposed regulations, business owners who allow smoking in their establishments could be fined a civil penalty up to $ 1, 000 along with any customers or workers caught smoking. The law itself, Act 8 of 2006, which includes a criminal penalty up to $ 500, did not specify who could be fined.

“Are you going to propose that [the restaurant owner ] has to have restroom monitors in there to make sure that they don’t have this in order to protect himself ?” Jeffress asked Rick Hogan, lead attorney for the Division of Health within the Department of Health and Human Services.

The division’s top priority in enforcement is education, Hogan said.

Staff members are developing information packets about the law and regulations among other educational efforts.

“What we are proposing and what will be in place is that the division staff would be charged with the responsibility of utilizing common sense in enforcing any regulations,” he said.

Rep. Ken Cowling, D-Texarkana, urged leniency in the state’s enforcement.

“Show mercy until we can get the state notified as to what the rule says, what the law says and how they’re going to have to interpret it,” he told Hogan.

“We will,” Hogan said.

Asked what Gov. Mike Huckabee thought about legislators urging the Health Division to hold off on enforcing a law he pushed, Huckabee said through a spokesman, “The goal is not to punish businesses but to inform them so they can comply with the law. I feel certain that if there are questions, the Health Department will address them.”

The Health Division is developing a process for handling smoking complaints, which emphasizes educating business owners about the law.

The agency will set up a tollfree number and a Web site to accept complaints, according to a draft plan provided to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. After the first non-anonymous complaint, a business will receive an educational letter with a copy of the law.

The second complaint will result in a warning letter, and after the third complaint, the Health Division will investigate.

The division also will accept anonymous complaints. Three anonymous complaints will result in the educational letter, two more will warrant the warning letter and one more will trigger an investigation.

The division hopes to have the toll-free number, (800 ) 235-0002, operating by June 12 and the Web site, www. ARCleanAir. com, by June 19.

If the agency finds sufficient evidence, the business will be subject to a hearing and possible penalties.

Jeffress, who voted for the bill, wanted to know if construction adjustments — such as air ventilation systems — were necessary to allow smoking in bars within restaurants.

The law allows smoking in restaurants or bars that never allow in people younger than 21. But if a restaurant caters to anyone younger than 21 — even a restaurant that separates its bar area — smoking is prohibited in the entire building.

Therefore, for restaurants that house bars, no construction adjustments are necessary, Hogan said.

Jeffress said that an appeals process should be in place for businesses that disagree with the Health Division’s findings or penalties.

Hogan said such businesses can appeal to the circuit court and then to the Arkansas Supreme Court.

“I still have strong objections to what we’re doing here,” Jeffress said.

The Committee on Administrative Rules and Regulations asked that the draft regulations come before the committee again July 6.

The regulations also will be discussed Tuesday by the Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee.

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Some in Siloam Springs worry about statewide smoking ban

May 1, 2006
Virginia Vickery
SILOAM SPRINGS — Smoking in many places in Siloam Springs will be snuffed out soon because of two laws passed April 7 by the Arkansas General Assembly that ban smoking in many public places statewide.

Senate Bill 19, now Act 8 of 2006, which prohibits smoking in most public places, was signed into law by Gov. Mike Huckabee and will take effect in 90 days, sometime after mid-July.

House Bill 1046, which prohibits smoking in motor vehicles in which a child in a passenger safety seat is riding, was also passed and signed into law by Huckabee Monday.

There are some exceptions to the law: All restaurants and bars licensed by the state of Arkansas that prohibit at all times anyone under 21 are exempt form the ban. “Well then, we’ll just put a sign outside that says 21 and over,” said Missy Dalton, manager of the Hillbilly Cafe in Siloam Springs.

Some restaurants and business owners in Siloam Springs who have a large contingency of customers who smoke have expressed concern that they may lose smoking patrons. “We’re all smokers here, needless to say, and people like to come in here and relax and have a cigarette. If people don’t smoke they have the right to not come into a place where there’s smoking,” Dalton said of the Cafe on Main Street.

She admitted that she smokes less when she is at home and doesn’t smoke in her house.

A regular customer at Hillbilly Cafe said, “I think it’s a bunch of bologna. Nonsmokers are taking over the whole cotton-picking world.”

Sheila Tilghman, manager of Eastgate Restaurant in Siloam Springs, said, “We have enough nonsmoking restaurants in this town, and if people don’t like smoking they don’t have to patronize my restaurant. Leave my smokers alone.”

Tilghman said she is a nonsmoker and is allergic to cigarette smoke. She takes medication every day to be able to work but doesn’t mind it and said, “It’s my choice.”

She said, “It sucks. Over half of my customers are smokers. We have a separate area for smokers to sit; this shouldn’t be hurting my business. I pay taxes and for the food here and I do my part to support the government, so it shouldn’t come in and tell me who can and can’t smoke.”

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Panel considers $1,000 fine for violators of Ark. smoking ban

April 28, 2006
LITTLE ROCK – The state is considering a $1,000 fine for violators of the newly passed indoor smoking ban.

At a meeting Thursday, the state Board of Health considered draft regulations for business owners that allow smoking in their establishments. Customers or workers caught smoking would be subject to the penalty as well.

The law, passed this month in a special session by the Legislature, bans smoking in most indoor places. Bars that prohibit anyone younger than 21 from entering are exempt.

“That is important because it creates an obligation on the part of the businesses to enforce this law,” Paul Halverson, director of the Health Division in the state Department of Health and Human Services, told board members.

The draft regulations state that an “employer or person in charge” violates the law if that person allows smoking where it’s prohibited. A person in charge, according to the regulations, is “any person who has responsibility because of ownership, proprietorship or management.”

Besides the $100 to $500 criminal fine set out in the law, the regulations provide for a civil penalty up to $1,000.

But Halverson said the Health and Human Services Department, which is responsible for enforcing the law, intends to impose the civil penalty only as a last resort. Instead, Halverson said, the agency would rather take an educational approach with violators.

Restaurants and bars that are exempt from the law and choose to allow smoking would be required to post signs at all entrances saying: “Health warning. This is a smoking area. Occupants will be exposed to secondhand smoke. It is unlawful for anyone under 21 years of age to enter or work in any part of the establishment at all times.”

A public hearing on the draft rules will be held at 11 a.m. on May 31.

Susanne Boscarolo, owner of Ciao Baci restaurant and bar in Little Rock, said the ban will make work more pleasant for her staff.

“When you have to work in the bar, it gets to you when you’re there from 4 (in the afternoon) to 2 in the morning,” she said.

But Henry Lee, owner of Vino’s Pizza Pub Brewery in Little Rock, said he doesn’t think the government should force business owners to ban something that’s legal.

“If they want to take on the smoking industry, take on the smoking industry, don’t take on the independent businessman,” he said.

The law takes effect July 21.

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Jerry Jackson: Smoking Ban

April 19, 2006
Jerry Jackson

First let me say I am not a smoker and no one in my immediate family is a smoker. Having said that, have we lost all common sense and basic reasoning in an attempt to capitalize on the political correctness of non smoking?

In an attempt to stampede us all into a non smoking philosophy, proponents of the smoking ban are trying now to bombard us with the assertion that second hand smoke is more dangerous than the smoke directly inhaled.
Let’s analyze this from a truly layman’s view point. No, I’m not a scientist, but I have enough common sense to know that when you draw on a cigarette and bring this into your throat and lungs virtually 100 percent of that smoke goes directly into your body. For second hand smoke, whether it is smoke being exhaled or coming from the end of the cigarette itself, it is diluted probably 50 times in the air around the second hand recipient. No one seems to want to challenge this concept because we dare not question anyone who is against smoking no matter what the facts.

You have probably seen these TV ads that are being thrown at us with the factual statement that 40,000 people are killed each year by second hand smoke and 400,000 children who are asthmatic prone are being seriously damaged. Please explain to me how it is determined that 40,000 people each year die by second hand smoke. My guess is that some over zealous do-gooder who received a government grant made this claim to justify his own work. Then gabazz! It becomes a fact and is picked up by all the political correct media.

In an attempt to find the source of this information I called the 866quitsmoke or some such number. They had no idea where this information came from explaining that they were just the public relations arm of the organization. They suggested I call the Arkansas Department of Health. As you might expect no one there had any idea of where such information originated.

An article in the April 6th Democrat-Gazette brings a little logic to the claim that making businesses smoke free will increase productivity. The reason given is that time is saved by having no smoke breaks. A business owner in Jacksonville said most of his workers are smokers. He made his business non smoking 11 years ago at the suggestion of his insurance company. He says productivity has suffered considerably as employees are sneaking out for smoke breaks and since they have to go off premises, much time is lost.

The smoking of cigarettes is a smoking of the leaves of the plant tobacco. What about the burning of other leaves which seems to be a favorite pastime of some rural Arkansans. That must indeed be deadly. Or how about the annual forest fires that darken the sky for hundreds of miles.

A few years ago Denver, Colorado residents were the recipients of smoke so thick you could see only a few blocks away, and day after day the smoke got in your eyes and sometimes it troubled your breathing. Under those circumstances you would believe that after weeks of continuous smoke half of Denver residents would be dead by now and the other half on oxygen tanks. Consider this when the TV blurts out that second hand smoke (from cigarettes and cigars) kills 40,000 every year.

It is my understanding that a last minute amendment to the Fresh Air Act provided that if you are smoking in your car and you have a 6 year old or under in a car seat, you can be stopped and presumably arrested as a primary offense. I’ll bet there are a lot of six year olds out there waiting for their next birthday so they can once again enjoy a car ride. Ridiculous or what?

A recent letter to the Dem-Gaz written by Paul Christenberry says, “Why should the government or anyone else tell me where I can smoke? If I smoke in a government building and refuse to leave, will I be as famous as Rosa Parks?”

On a lighter note it seems that one of the columnists to this paper, Ms. Balderee, has trouble with her research for such columns. A few weeks ago while explaining the fallacy of my reasoning on the proper use of health insurance, she made the comment that evidently Mr. Jackson has never had to raise a family on $33,000 income per year and not have enough for all necessary expenses. You know in a way she is right. After graduating from college we had a family of four and got along without health insurance on $5,100 per year. About 50% of my take home pay went for rent. Later we had two more children and by that time we were making almost $7,500 per year. As I play my violin I could also add that I jumped at any chance to work overtime and my wife collected pop bottles to supplement the grocery money. But then a government worker such as Ms. Baldree wouldn’t understand that. After all, we know that all conservatives have been filthy rich since birth.

Another local progressive columnist states that some of us need to change our mindset about the needy. And what might this mindset be? While progressives are great at spending other people’s money, one wonders what some of their tax returns show on contributions for the needy.
An insight into this occurred a few years ago when Vice President (save the planet) Gore revealed that his total charitable contributions were $340 on income of several hundred thousand, but then this is America and we can all talk the talk and not be required to walk the walk.

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State Smoking Ban Slows Smoking Restrictions in Ark. Cities

April 14, 2006
Andrew DeMillo

Efforts to enact workplace-smoking bans in at least three Arkansas cities are being put on hold since the Legislature approved – and Gov. Mike Huckabee signed into law – a statewide workplace-smoking ban last week.

The ban goes into effect in July.

Five Arkansas cities already ban or restrict smoking in public places in some manner. Pine Bluff, Fayetteville, Fairfield Bay, Highfill and El Dorado had already enacted smoking restrictions.

Efforts had been under way in at least three other cities – Jonesboro, Springdale and Little Rock – to introduce similar bans but it’s likely those efforts won’t move forward anytime soon because of the state’s ban, an official with the American Cancer Society said.

“I think what you’re going to see is a sorting out period where people learn more about this and see its effects,” said Kevin Dedner, the society’s government relations director. “I think people are going to take some time and adjust to the law.”

The Arkansas ban, which includes exemptions for small hotels, nursing homes and the Oaklawn horse racing track and the Southland Greyhound Park in West Memphis, isn’t as strict as some of the other bans passed in other parts of the state. The ban also exempted tobacco shops and home-based businesses with fewer than three employees.

The statewide ban also exempts any bars that don’t allow anyone under the age of 21 on the premises, which may leave some bars and clubs out of the smoke-free restrictions.

The statewide restriction doesn’t go as far as one that had been considered in Little Rock, which had considered a ban that would eventually restrict all bars and restaurants.

Little Rock Mayor Jim Dailey said the city had slowed down its proposal after he initially heard of Huckabee’s interest in a statewide ban. Dailey said the city will abandon its smoking restriction proposal because of the new legislation.

“I have breathed a sigh of relief because I consider my objective in developing a city that is under a workplace smoking ban accomplished,” Dailey said. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s off the table.”

Bans in individual cities will still stand and cover circumstances not addressed by the state law. For example, Pine Bluff’s ban includes a 10-foot buffer around any doorway, a restriction not imposed by the new legislation.

Dedner said it’s possible that other cities around the state could pass measures that impose more restrictions than the state’s ban, but said his group doesn’t have a strategy right now to lobby for those proposals.

“Obviously it’s our hope to have better coverage around the state overall,” Dedner said. “But we don’t think that’s anything that’s going to happen immediately.”

Huckabee said cities are free to enact more restrictions, but said he doesn’t think there’s much more that could make the ban stronger.

Violators of the ban could be fined $100 to $500.

“It’s pretty doggone strict, quite frankly,” Huckabee said. “There’s not much more a city could do to be more strict, other than just ban smoking, period.”

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Smoking Ban Fallout

April 13, 2006

Little Rock – Efforts to enact workplace-smoking bans in at least three Arkansas cities are being put on hold since the Legislature approved — and Governor Huckabee signed into law – a statewide workplace-smoking ban last week. The ban goes into effect in July.

Five Arkansas cities already ban or restrict smoking in public places in some manner. Pine Bluff, Fayetteville, Fairfield Bay, Highfill and El Dorado had already enacted smoking restrictions. Efforts had been under way to introduce similar bans in at least three other cities — Jonesboro, Springdale and Little Rock.

An official with the American Cancer Society says those efforts will stop temporarily so the state law can be evaluated. The Arkansas state ban is not as strict as some of the city bans.

Restaurant owner looks for way to avoid smoking ban
by Tim Tialdo, KY3 News
HARRISON, Ark. — People in Arkansas are taking a deep breath, preparing for a new anti-smoking law signed into law last week by Gov. Mike Huckabee. The Clean Indoor Air Act bans smoking in most indoor public places.
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