People Ban: MN State Update Page 3

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Anti-smoking law to expand

September 23, 2007
Don Davis Bemidji Pioneer

ST. PAUL – Minnesota’s pioneering 32-year-old anti-smoking law gets a facelift Oct. 1.

That is when the Freedom to Breathe Act takes effect, banning smoking from almost all indoor areas other than homes and private vehicles. Most affected will be restaurants, bars and private clubs, many of which fought implementation of the law earlier this year over fears it would hurt business.

Those getting ready for the strict smoking ban report no problems as the start date nears, and a relatively few questions, after a loud legislative debate earlier this year.

“They grumble, but they adapt,” said Bob Moffet of the state American Lung Association chapter.

“My guess is in three to six months, people are going to be wondering why we didn’t do this earlier,” added Pat McCone, an American Lung Association official based in Duluth.

John Stieger of the Minnesota Health Department said tens of thousands of information packets have been distributed by state, local and private health officials.

“We are also directly contacting 7,000 food, beverage and lodging establishments to remind them of the new law,” Stieger said.

Many non-smokers will notice no difference when the new law kicks in. Minnesota’s original Indoor Clean Air Act greatly restricted smoking in public places in 1975, leading the way for many states to follow suit. Since then, other states have enacted laws even stricter.

“What this is, really, is closing the last loophole in the nation’s first anti-smoking law,” Moffett said. “We fell behind a bit, and now we are updating the law.”

Updating that law drew heated opposition earlier this year when lawmakers debated the issue. With Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s backing, legislators passed the new measure over protests, mostly from bar owners who expect business to dramatically drop.

The most vocal opponent has seen nothing since the bill’s passage to relieve her fears.

In recent years, bars have closed after Minneapolis and St. Paul enacted their own smoking bans, former bar owner Sue Jeffers said. That proves bar owners’ worries are legitimate, she added.

“With 120-plus businesses having gone under (and all the jobs that went with them) in part or all because of the existing smoking bans they have good reason to worry,” Jeffers said.

Non-smokers will not flock to bars in large enough numbers to replace smokers who will visit bars for shorter periods or just not go there at all, Jeffers said.

American Indian-owned casinos – where smoking is allowed – and bars without smoking restrictions across state lines will benefit from the new law, she added.

While most of the discussion has been about bars, restaurants and private clubs – including military groups such as American Legion halls – other organizations also will be affected.

For instance, McCone said, there are Wal-Mart stores with two employee lounges – one for smokers and one for non-smokers. The smoking lounges will have to disappear.

“Any workplace that employs two or more people is affected,” she said. “There are more of them than we realize.”

An Alcoholics Anonymous leader asked if his meetings would need to be smoke free. The answer was, “Yes.”

Even work vehicles must be smoke free if there is more than one person inside. So must a home office if more than one person works there or customers visit there.

At least eight cities and counties have stricter ordinances that will remain after the law takes effect, including Beltrami County.

Lake County, for instance, approved a smoking ban ordinance that also starts Oct. 1. It outlaws smoking within 10 feet of building entrances; the new state law does nothing to regulate smoking outdoors.

Anti-smoking organizations are bracing for an expected influx of people asking for help to quit smoking.

Combined with a recent cigarette fee increase, the smoking ban could convince people to kick the habit.

“It is one of the few things that causes large numbers of people to quit,” Moffet said. “I expect the numbers will be dramatic for Minnesota.”
On the Web:

— www.freshairmn.org

— www.health.state.mn.us/ freedomtobreathe

— www.minnesotansagainstsmokingbans.com

Don Davis works for Forum Communications Co., which owns the Bemidji Pioneer.

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Businesses prepare for smoking ban

August 29, 2007
Amy Trang

When the Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites opened in the 1970s, the whole lodging facility was a smoking area, from the rooms to the banquet halls.

Almost three decades later, the hotel is practically the opposite — smoke-free with the exception of a few designated hotel rooms and Legends Bar & Grill.

“That wasn’t started by us, but the guests who were renting rooms were requesting it,” owner Dick Anderson said.

By Oct. 1, Legends Bar & Grill will be required to be completely smoke free because of Minnesota’s Freedom to Breathe Act, which bans smoking in virtually all indoor public places and places of employment as of that date.

Anderson was one of the panelists discussing the legalities and implications of the Freedom to Breathe Act at a Tuesday forum sponsored by Smoke Free Communities at the Holiday Inn.

Anderson expects implementing the state provision won’t be tough.

“When you are running a bar and restaurant, there are a lot of laws to train staff on, so we’re used to training on the new state laws,” he said.

The forum targeted business owners to provide information and answers to their questions by a panel of medical, state, county and city officials.

The biggest misconception about the act is that it only applies to bars and restaurants, when it applies to all work environments, said Alicia Bauman, a coordinator with Smoke Free Communities. The organization is a coalition of St. Cloud-area organizations; its goals include helping business owners implement the new law.

Under Freedom to Breathe, smoking will become illegal in bars, restaurants, bowling alleys, VFWs, American Legions, country club lounges and other establishments as of Oct. 1. The ban also covers public buses, trains, taxis, limousines and transit shelters and terminals.

Outdoor smoking is still permitted under the statewide smoking ban, unless local ordinances restrict it. Smoking also is allowed in private homes and vehicles, hotel and motel rooms, truck cabs, farm vehicles and buildings, locked psychiatric wards, American Indian ceremonies and on stage for actors performing in plays. There are some other exceptions to the law: Smoking would still be permitted in tobacco shops, for instance, to allow customers to test products, said Warren Ortland, a staff attorney with the Tobacco Law Center.

Educating owners

In the next two weeks, all business owners in Stearns, Benton, Wright, Todd, Morrison and Sherburne counties will receive a business kit outlining the new act, including how to implement it in their workplaces, said Mary Pittman-Mach, Stearns County Public Health Supervisor.

It will mostly be up to business owners to help uphold the law through the posting of no smoking signs, asking people to refrain from smoking, not providing ashtrays or other smoking tools, and refusing to serve people who break the law, panelists said.

Details on who will handle smoking violation complaints will be worked out by the Minnesota Department of Health by mid-September, said Jim Schloegl, environmental health specialist with the city of St. Cloud.

Educating staff

Waite Park-based beverage company Bernick’s has a smoke-free policy in its buildings, but the company will have to educate its drivers about the act, which prohibits smoking in a work vehicle if more than one person is present, said Karla Tschida, benefits and compensation specialist for Bernick’s.

Bauman said Smoke Free Communities has been working aggressively this summer to help business owners learn the law, which includes hosting workplace seminars, providing no smoking signage and sending out educational pamphlets.

Smokers brace for ban
SCSU University Chronicle – St. Cloud,MN,USA
After years of debate, the Minnesota House and Senate came to an agreement in April, passing the statewide smoking ban at all Minnesota bars, …
Taking sides: Smoking ban divides
Prior Lake American – Prior Lake,MN,USA
“I’ve already had three couples [from Bloomington, where a smoking ban is already in place] tell me there’s no sense in coming here.” …

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The governor was surrounded by dozens of supporters of the smoking ban as he signed the bill into law on the patio of the Granite City Food and Brewery in Eagan.

Smoking ban passes with support of local senator, but not reps
Shakopee Valley News – Shakopee,MN,USA
The smoking ban provided no accommodation for private businesses and clubs, such as ventilation systems, Beard said. “This bill was over the top,” he said. …

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Anti-smoking crusade hits chord in an age of choice

May 16, 2007
By Katherine Kersten, Star Tribune

Have we hunted down every last Minnesota smoker? Can we relax our vigilance now that the Legislature has passed, and the governor has signed, a statewide smoking ban?

Not yet. After all, those furtive little groups are still huddled outside office buildings, puffing that poison and interfering with our right to inhale unadulterated car fumes.

And don’t forget the ban’s gaping loopholes. You can still smoke indoors in public places if, for example, you’re involved in a theatrical production or in a psychiatric facility.

But no, technically neither of those categories includes the State Capitol.

Don’t get me wrong, folks. I’m not a smoker and I think smoking is unwise. The fact is, however, that smoking is legal – you can buy cigarettes at any gas station.

That’s why opponents of the new ban raise some legitimate objections. They charge that the ban violates restaurant and bar owners’ property rights and unnecessarily threatens their livelihoods, as well as their employees’ jobs.

But the ban should concern more than Minnesota smokers and bar owners. All of us have a stake in the debate.

If government can prohibit smoking in all restaurants – and provide no smokers-only alternatives – why can’t it ban fast food or big juicy steaks?

In a free society, how much government intrusion is warranted on the basis of promoting public health?

The smoking ban suggests a fascinating paradox. Today, our society faces public health hazards that pose far greater dangers than second hand smoke. Yet instead of banning these, we’ve moved in the opposite direction. Today, “choice” reigns supreme, unless the behavior in question is smoking.

Take divorce. It is linked to myriad harms to children – from depression to poor school performance to out-of-wedlock child-bearing. Evidence of this grows daily. One recent study, for example, found that boys from an intact, married family are half as likely as others to end up in prison as young adults. According to another study, the single “most important explanatory variable” behind the three-fold rise in youth suicide over the last 50 years is the “increased share of youth living in homes with a divorced parent.”

Despite such evidence, it’s become easier, rather than harder, to get a divorce in recent decades. Today, no-fault divorce seeks to minimize the hassle and guilt when you walk away from the spouse and kids.

Pornography is another public health hazard. It is growing rapidly and taking ever more depraved forms. On the internet, gang rapes, sexual torture, and sex with animals are now just a mouse click away. In 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court informed us that “virtual” child pornography – which portrays life-like children in the most degraded acts – is protected “free speech.”

Then there’s abortion. Even modest restrictions such as a 24-hour waiting period or the ban on the late-term abortion procedure produce a tsunami of public discord and debate.

The anti-smoking movement is a perfect crusade for our relativistic age. It is driven by self-righteousness, but has no moral dimension. If you try to limit “choice” in almost any other human behavior, prepare to be branded a interfering prig. With smoking, you’re a righteous crusader.

In our upside down age, it’s “I’m OK, you’re OK” where divorce or pornography are concerned. One wag summed it up this way: Today you can engage in almost any sexual activity you want, so long as you don’t have a cigarette afterwards.

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Minnesota lawmakers pass smoking ban
Pierceland Herald – Pierceland,Sasketchewan,Canada
By MARTIGA LOHN, AP Writer Sat May 12, 7:13 AM ET. ST. PAUL, Minn. – Minnesota would ban smoking in bars, restaurants and other establishments under a bill …

With a smoking ban heading to the governor, one foe has seen the process up close

05/12/2007
BY RACHEL E. STASSEN-BERGER PIONEER PRESS

Marge Romero doesn’t have to open her mouth to show how she feels about the coming statewide smoking ban.
Her opinion is on her office walls.
“Do it today. Tomorrow there may be a law against it,” reads one display.
“It’s not just a cigarette. It’s your freedom of choice. What’s next?” reads another.
And, in a place of prominence and honor, is a late-model poster of the Rolling Stones with a cigarette – a real cigarette – taped to Keith Richards’ mouth.
Romero, a longtime legislative staffer, is a pack-a-day smoker and is vehemently against the move to ban smoking in public places.

That debate may, finally, be winding down this year at the Legislature.

On Friday, the Senate voted to ban smoking in Minnesota’s bars and restaurants. The measure passed the House 81-48 early this morning, sending it to Gov. Tim Pawlenty. Pawlenty is expected to sign the measure into law.

Now that lawmakers have approved the ban, Romero knows what she will do.

She will retire from the Legislature by Oct. 1, Romero decreed, the day the statewide smoking ban would go into effect.

“The effective date is my retirement date,” Romero said.

“Why would I continue to work with people who are …,” she said, pausing as she considered the best way to describe lawmakers who supported the smoking ban. “Who have stigmatized smokers?”

Romero, 59, picked up the smoking habit late in life.

“I didn’t smoke until after my son was born. May 19, 1976,” she said. His birthday is her anniversary as a smoker. “I had a bottle of beer and a cigarette in the hospital.”

More than three decades later, she’s not ready to quit.

“I like to smoke,” she said.

From her first-floor Capitol office, she has closely followed the smoking ban proposals.

She watched as the measure changed a little from committee vote to committee vote. She watched March 27, when the Senate first passed the smoking ban and her boss, Sen. Keith Langseth, DFL-Glyndon, joined those supporting the bill. And Friday, she watched with dismay and occasional flashes of anger while senators held what was the final discussion of the measure on the Capitol’s second floor.

During the Senate’s televised debate on the ban, she talked back to the television. She used derisive nicknames for ban supporters. And she explained what she believes is at the root of a statewide smoking ban.

“This is about behavior modification. The behavior modification people won,” she said. “This is legislating legal intolerance and discrimination.”

That’s not the Legislature she started work for in 1984, Romero says.

“When I first started at the Capitol, you could smoke at your desk. You could drink at your desk. Sexual harassment was not reported, it was graded,” she said.

Lawmakers voted Friday to move further away from those days. On the Senate floor, the vote was 43-21.

“OK, it’s been fun,” Romero said as the Senate president declared the vote closed.

Then, she grabbed her cigarettes, her lighter and headed outside for a smoke.

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The Minneapolis Star Tribune gives final instructions to lawmakers…..the puppets seem eager to heed their master

May 1, 2007

The Minneapolis Star Tribune published this editorial instructing lawmakers on how to finally pass a statewide smoking ban.
The instructional manifest then goes on to cite the local propagandist ministry of lies, which we know as MPAAT, (now ClearWay MN):

But a recent study by ClearWay Minnesota, a local nonprofit, found that county and city smoking bans passed in 2004 did not hurt sales or employment at eating and drinking establishments.

Yet, the truth is that MPAAT / ClearWay MN published data which shows that smoking bans eliminate business in 7 out of 10 hospitality establishments, as this table from ClearWay MN, which counted customers before and after smoking bans were enacted, shows:

And apparently their “study” conveniently overlooked these 110 local establishments which closed their doors due to business losses from city and county smoking bans. Furthermore, MPAAT seems to think that they can hide the fact that 3,000+ jobs were also eliminated in those same bar & restaurant closings.

The statewide smoking ban was clearly local partisan politics as usual……with a DFL pro big government, state control of every aspect of your life agenda. And of course, the local propagandist media (Star Tribune) cheer leading that state control agenda to the very end.

But even if this poorly thought out legislation does pass, watch for a lawsuit to challenge the unequal protection under the law.

Prohibitory law does apply to tribal reservations, even though DFL leadership carefully crafted this law specifically to exempt their campaign contributing “friends” at the casinos.

Mark Wernimont

Smoking ban nearer completion
Mankato Free Press – Mankato,MN,USA
By Mark Fischenich. Rep. Kathy Brynaert supported the Freedom to Breathe Act from start to finish, calling it a public health issue and a policy her …

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