Public smoking ban could change habits, affect business

A proposed bill in the Missouri legislature that would ban most smoking in public places has some local businesses owners concerned. They say that the bill would be unenforceable and that people would just find ways around the ban anyway. Jim Harrell of Jim's Friendly said that as an ex-smoker, he said that second-hand smoke didn't bother him, but that it bothered others. But he said that it would hurt city businesses. "I know of 2-3 bars in Independence that closed after they passed a smoking ban there," he said. "One bar had been there for several years." And he said that up in Iowa, which has such a smoking ban, he said that most people would simply go outside to have a smoke anyway, which would render such a law unenforceable. However, Harrell said that he could live with a bill that allowed designated smoking areas.

Barb Rowe of the Sheridan Diner said that "it was a good way for the government to lose tax dollars," saying that the government would have to raise taxes on other people to make up for the people who quit smoking and quit paying the $6.10/carton tax. Rowe said that people would simply "sneak a smoke" to get around public smoking bans. "I worked in substance abuse for several years, and knowing how addictive these things can be, it is very hard for people to quit smoking," she said. She said that she had gotten no complaints about second-hand smoke from customers.

Kevin Austin of Country Corners said that he would not have a problem with such a ban, provided that it allowed for designated smoking areas. He talked about the work of Smokebusters, an R-III student organization that discourages people from starting smoking; they gave a presentation to the Worth County School Board asking them to make the school smoke-free. He said that the young people were the ones who would live with the decisions of today; "If they want such a ban, I'm all for it," he said. Austin said that such a ban, combined with increased cigarette taxes and corporate mergers, would drive more people to quit in the coming years.

Proponents of the public smoking ban say that it is not a matter of personal choice, but that it is a public health issue; they say that there is a link between second-hand smoke and health problems. For instance, the Missouri Youth Adult Alliance cites figures in Italy saying that heart attacks dropped by around 10% among older adults after such a ban was enacted in Italy. But the gambling industry is one of the big opponents of such a ban, citing what they say are hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenues annually in states that have such a ban compared to states which don't have such a ban. For instance, Missouri, which doesn't have such a ban, gained revenues while states that do have such a ban lost gambling revenues. That would mean less money for schools, which take a portion of money from gambling revenues.