Lawmakers hear input on public smoking ban-WEB ONLY

A bill that would impose a statewide ban on smoking in enclosed public places in Indiana ignited sometimes emotional debate before an Indiana House committee yesterday.

The lengthy hearing before the House Public Policy Committee pitted health advocates, business leaders and people who said their lives have been torn by secondhand smoke against opponents of the bill – primarily bar owners and casino advocates.

Proponents said the bill would save lives by protecting more people from the ills of secondhand smoke and would lower health care costs. Bar owners and those who testified on behalf of casinos said it would hurt their businesses and prohibit adults from using a legal product in their venues.

The committee could vote on the bill authored by Democratic Rep. Charlie Brown, D-Gary, next week, and if endorsed it would be sent to the full House for consideration. The ban would apply to any enclosed places where the public is allowed, including restaurants, bars, bowling alleys and casinos.

Brown has backing from a coalition called the Indiana Campaign for Smokefree Air, a group of more than 30 organizations that include the American Cancer Society, American Heart Association, American Lung Association and the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

“I hope you will open your minds to the fact that we have thousands of Hoosiers working in places that allow smoking,” Brown said to those who filled the House chamber. “Many of those people have no other choice because they have limited skills or no other opportunity for employment. Those are the people I am worried about.”

Indianapolis public relations agency owner Bruce Hetrick said his wife, Pam, never smoked but died in his arms of cancer in 2003 from what doctors tied to the secondhand smoke she had inhaled during her 25 years as a journalist. She was 49.

“On behalf of our sons, please pass this bill,” said Hetrick, an IBJ columnist who chronicled his late wife’s illness in the newspaper. “Pass it without a single exemption that says any working person’s life is expendable. Pass it today so we can start saving lives tomorrow.”

John Crawford, a doctor who was on the Fort Wayne City Council when it passed an enhanced ordinance in 2007 that outlawed smoking in all buildings where the public is invited – including bars and restaurants – said studies in states with long-standing, comprehensive bans did not show an aggregate loss of business in those venues.

“You will lose some smokers – we do not contest that,” he said of those businesses. “But you will gain some nonsmokers and there are a lot more of those.”

But the Indiana Licensed Beverage Association, which represents about 700 bars in Indiana, says local ordinances banning smoking in bars have forced some of them to shut down, and a statewide ban would put more out of business.

“At some point freedom of choice and personal responsibility has to come into play,” said Brad Klopfenstein, executive director of the association. “There should be a place where adults can go to enjoy a legal product with other adults.”

Mike Smith, president of the Casino Association – which represents 12 of Indiana’s 13 casinos – predicted that banning smoking in them would put a big dent in their revenue. He said the approximately $1 billion in taxes the casinos pay state and local governments each year could be cut by 15 percent, or $150 million.

Lobbyists from Blue Chip Casino in Michigan City on Lake Michigan and Argosy Casino in Lawrenceburg on the Ohio River near Cincinnati also said that a smoking ban would cost them big money.

As of last October, 29 states, along with Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia, had smoke-free laws in effect that cover either workplaces, restaurants, bars, or combinations of some or all of such places, according to the American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation. Montana, Nebraska, Oregon and Utah had laws that were to take effect this year.

Some states with smoking bans in public places exempt casinos, although neighboring Illinois does not.

There are more than 30 counties or communities in Indiana with smoke-free ordinances of some kind, and several colleges and universities have smoke-free campus policies, according to the Indiana Tobacco Prevention and Cessation agency.