By Mark Bennett
TERRE HAUTE — Imagine the spread of change being plotted on a roadmap, and two guys unfolding it outside a desolate gas station.
(Yes, ladies, we do seek directions, occasionally. Then we choose whether to follow them.)
The guys can’t find Indiana on the roadmap of change, so they go inside to ask the attendant.
“Indiana?” he says. “You can’t get there from here.”
Sometimes, it seems as if change comes to Indiana last. Thus, if our unyielding history rules our thinking, anyone looking at another attempt by an Indiana lawmaker to get a statewide smoking ban through the General Assembly would have to honestly say, “I’ll believe it when I see it.”
This time, it could happen. And it should happen.
Why? Well, if North Carolina — the heart of tobacco country — can enact a statewide smoking ban, then it’s even possible right here in Indiana.
This month, public places in North Carolina went smokefree. The ban includes restaurants, bars and other hospitality businesses. We’re not talking California, Massachusetts or New York. North Carolina — the land that produced Dale Earnhardt, Richard Petty, Jesse Helms and nearly half of the tobacco Americans consume each year.
When North Carolina’s governor, Bev Perdue, signed the law last May, she said, “This is a historic day for North Carolina. By banning smoking in our restaurants and bars, we greatly reduce the dangers of secondhand smoke and lower health care costs for families.”
The Tar Heel State has joined 26 others with smokefree laws that cover bars and restaurants, along with the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. (The laws in Michigan and Wisconsin go into effect in July, according to the Indiana Tobacco Prevention and Cessation agency.) All of Indiana’s neighboring states, except Kentucky — the No. 2 tobacco producer — have statewide public smoking laws. Florida, Idaho, Louisiana and Nevada ban smoking in restaurants, but exempt stand-alone bars. In November, South Dakotans will vote on a referendum to prohibit smoking in all workplaces.
That leaves Indiana in a dwindling group of 18 states without a statewide clean-air law. Also resisting are Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada, North and South Dakota, Missouri, Kansas, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Texas and most of the South.
The pace of change, state by state, increased in the summer of 2006. That’s when U.S. Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona issued a report called, “The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke.” That comprehensive, scientific study concluded that nonsmokers exposed to secondhand smoke, at home or work, increase their risk of heart disease by 25 to 30 percent, and lung cancer by 20 to 30 percent. Secondhand smoke can cause sudden infant death syndrome, respiratory problems, ear infections and asthma attacks in kids.
In 2006, nearly half of all nonsmoking Americans were routinely exposed to secondhand smoke, the report concluded.
States began to concede that those unwanted risks posed to nonsmokers outweighed the rights of people to smoke in places open to the public. In October 2006, Vigo County commissioners passed a limited ordinance, banning smoking in some public places. Several types of establishments were given exemptions, such as restaurants and bars with separate smoking rooms, civic organizations and clubs, private rooms and tobacco shops.
The proposed statewide ban, initiated by Rep. Charlie Brown, D-Gary, would trump local ordinances, such as Vigo County’s. House Bill 1131 would ban smoking in almost all public places, except casinos and pari-mutuel horse racing venues. Those exemptions are purely political — casino and gambling lobbyists have successfully squashed past attempts at smokefree laws in Indiana.
Brown’s 2010 try hasn’t died yet. It was approved 7-5 by the House Public Policy Committee on Wednesday. The proposal likely will go to the full Indiana House of Representatives next week. If it’s approved, the next step is the Senate. Last year, a similar bill by Brown passed the House, but fizzled in the Senate.
Statistics rarely sway Hoosier opponents of smoking laws. But, for those interested, secondhand smoke exposure leads to an average of 1,240 deaths of nonsmoking adults in Indiana each year, according to the Tobacco Prevention and Cessation agency. The health-care costs for victims of secondhand smoke total $390.3 million annually. That’s $62 per Hoosier.
Sometimes, Indiana looks noble as the last holdout in America. Our single-class high school basketball tournament was a good example. Our avoidance of daylight saving time, not so much. Our resistance to a law ensuring smokefree public places, not at all.
Mark Bennett can be reached at (812) 231-4377 or mark.bennett@tribstar.com.
