Across the United States, a growing number of states, counties and cities have enacted strong smoke-free laws that apply to all workplaces and public places, including restaurants and bars. In Kentucky, 34 local governments have passed laws providing some level of protection from secondhand smoke in the workplace. Of those, 19 cover all indoor workplaces, including restaurants and bars. Currently, 32 percent of Kentuckians are protected by comprehensive smoke-free workplace laws or regulations. These laws are an appropriate response to the overwhelming scientific evidence that secondhand smoke is a serious health hazard that causes heart disease, lung cancer, and other serious illnesses. As smoke-free laws have spread, the evidence has also grown that these laws protect health without harming business in bars, restaurants and other hospitality venues.
Altogether, 23 states and 447 municipalities have enacted strong smoke-free laws that apply to all workplaces, restaurants and bars. Nearly half of the U.S. population — 48 percent — now lives in areas with this important health protection.
Unfortunately, the many residents and workers in Kentucky do not yet have the right to breathe clean, smoke-free air. Too often when we enter a workplace, restaurant or bar, we are still exposed to harmful secondhand smoke, which contains more than 7,000 chemicals, including hundreds that are toxic and at least 70 that are proven to cause cancer.
As Kentucky leaders at the local and state level consider smoke-free legislation, we want to share with you the evidence that secondhand smoke is hazardous to human health and that smoke-free laws protect health without harming business. Our leaders should support comprehensive smoke-free legislation that applies to all workplaces, restaurants and bars; protects all workers and the public; and is free of exemptions and other loopholes.
Secondhand smoke is a serious health hazard
There is now overwhelming and irrefutable evidence that secondhand smoke harms human health. As the U.S. surgeon general stated when releasing a landmark 2006 report on secondhand smoke, “The debate is over. The science is clear. Secondhand smoke is a serious health hazard that causes premature death and disease in children and non-smoking adults.” In 2010, the 30th surgeon general’s Report confirmed that even a little bit of tobacco smoke causes damage to the DNA, blood vessels, and lung tissue, causing disease. The Surgeon General’s conclusions from both reports include:
• Secondhand smoke is a toxic mix of more than 7,000 chemicals that attack every organ in the body.
• Secondhand smoke causes lung cancer and heart disease in non-smoking adults and respiratory and ear infections, more severe asthma attacks, sudden infant death syndrome and low birth weight in children. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 50,000 Americans die each year from lung cancer and heart disease caused by secondhand smoke exposure. Secondhand smoke causes DNA damage leading to cancer, and blood vessel damage leading to heart disease.
• There is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke. Even brief exposure can trigger immediate, harmful changes in the cardiovascular system that increases risk of heart attack or stroke.
• The only way to protect non-smokers from secondhand smoke is to require smoke-free workplaces and public places. Other approaches, such as air ventilation systems and smoking and non-smoking sections, do not work.
These findings lead to one clear conclusion: No one should have to put up with the serious health risks of secondhand smoke in order to earn a living or enjoy a night out.
Smoke-free laws protect health without harming business
As we debate smoke-free legislation, opponents are making the usual, unfounded arguments that smoke-free laws hurt business. These arguments are not supported by the facts.
Dozens of scientific studies and the experience of the growing number of smoke-free states and cities all show the same thing: Smoke-free laws at worst have no impact on the restaurant and bar business and even have a positive impact in some cases. This conclusion is based on comparisons of objective economic data, such as employment, sales, and profits, before and after smoke-free laws take effect. As the surgeon general’s 2006 report concluded, “Evidence from peer-reviewed studies shows that smoke-free policies and regulations do not have an adverse economic impact on the hospitality industry.”
Perhaps the strongest evidence that smoke-free laws protect health without harming business is the simple fact that a growing number of states, communities and even entire countries are enacting such laws. Economic analyses in states and communities as diverse as Washington state; Minnesota; Massachusetts; California; Delaware; Ohio; New York City; Lexington, Ky.; and El Paso, Texas, all reached the same conclusion: Going smoke-free did not hurt business in restaurants and bars.
In Lexington, which went smoke-free in April 2004, a study concluded, “In general, selected key business indicators in Lexington restaurants, bars and hotels have not been affected by the smoke-free law.” The same was true of an economic study which examined the economic impact on northern Kentucky border counties when Ohio went smoke-free.
These findings are not surprising given the strong public support for smoke-free laws and strong preference for smoke-free establishments. The Zagat Survey, the authoritative survey of restaurant dining trends, has consistently found that consumers strongly prefer smoke-free restaurants. Zagat’s 2006 survey of 115,000 Americans found that 97 percent would dine out the same or more if restaurants were smoke-free, while only 3 percent said they would dine out less often.
Responding to this evidence, members of the business community, including the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, and restaurant and bar owners, are becoming increasingly supportive of smoke-free laws. They realize that these laws improve employee health, reduce tobacco-related health care costs that total $96 billion a year nationwide and attract new customers. In endorsing smoke-free legislation as a 2012 priority, the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce President Dave Adkisson stated that tobacco is not only killing Kentuckians, but that it is also bankrupting us.
Smoke-free laws are popular with Kentucky voters
A recent statewide poll found that a strong majority of Kentucky voters support a statewide smoke-free law. By a 59 percent to 39 percent margin, voters support a law that would prohibit smoking in most public places, including workplaces, public buildings, offices, restaurants and bars. Support cuts across party lines, including 60 percent of Republicans, 55 percent of independents and 59 percent of Democrats.
The survey also found that 67 percent of voters (including 48 percent of smokers) believe the right of customers and employees to breathe clean air in restaurants and bars is more important than the right of smokers to smoke or owners to allow smoking in these places.
In summary, smoke-free laws have been unmitigated and popular successes virtually everywhere they have been implemented. These laws achieve almost universal compliance and improve air quality and the health of workers almost immediately. The hospitality industry thrives despite claims to the contrary, and the public loves the laws.
It’s time for Kentucky to protect everyone’s health and right to breathe clean air by state officials approving a comprehensive smoke-free law, while local officials continue to enact strong local smoke-free laws.
We urge Kentuckians to contact their legislators supporting a Smoke-Free Kentucky by calling 502-564-8100. For more information please visit www.facebook.com/smokefreeky or www.smokefreeky.org.