1/9/2009

See the proposed smoking ordiance

By APRIL MIDDLETON

Salina Journal

Salina city commissioners Monday will get their first look at a Clean Indoor Air Ordinance that would prohibit smoking inside virtually all public places.

"It's a big policy question and I think will be a difficult one for the commission," City Manager Jason Gage said. "It causes you to weigh the public health benefit of the ordinance versus the impact it has on private property."

The commission meets at 4 p.m. Monday in Room 107 of the City-County Building.

Public forums on the proposed ordinance have been scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Jan. 15 and Jan. 20. During those forums, city staff will outline the ordinance, answer questions and take public comments, Gage said.

The commission will meet again to discuss the ordinance Jan. 26.

Salina's current smoking ordinance was passed in 2002 by voters.

It bans smoking in restaurants between 5 a.m. and 9 p.m.

"If you look at what is being passed in other cities, ours is ancient," said Trent Davis, a local neurologist and member of the Salina Area Tobacco Prevention Coalition. "It was a great first step. It got our consciousness aroused and awakened, but it doesn't go far enough."

The proposed ordinance was modeled after similar ordinances in other Kansas cities, such as Lawrence, Manhattan, Garden City and Lenexa.

As drafted, the ordinance to be considered by the commission Monday would prohibit smoking in all enclosed public places, including all restaurants, bars, bingo parlors and bowling alleys. It would apply to private clubs and fraternal organizations when those buildings were used as a public place.

The ordinance also would ban smoking within 20 feet of a building entrance. Smoking would be allowed in outdoor areas, so long as they were not fully enclosed.

A new ordinance would not require a public vote. It's possible, though, that an ordinance could end up on the April ballot.

If city commissioners approve the ordinance, voters could petition for a repeal of the ordinance to be on the ballot. If commissioners don't pass the ordinance, voters could petition to have the ordinance placed on the ballot.

Davis said there are still a number of people who don't believe cigarette smoke is dangerous.

It is, he said, and it is one of the few habits that directly affects other people.

"It is a preventable cause of illness and death," he said. "Nature's thrown enough at us that we have no control over. It's foolish for us as a society to not handle those things that we have direct control over."

nReporter April Middleton can be reached at 822-1409 or by e-mail at amid dleton@salina.com.

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