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Voters face tobacco issue Mail Tribune / Jim Craven Central Point bartender Lisa Atkinson smokes a cigarette in the doorway of the Pioneer Club, a restaurant and bar. Smoking within 10 feet of the restaurant door will be illegal if the city�s proposed anti-smoking ordinance passes. School support, smoking issues go to voters in Central Point By Sara Murphy CENTRAL POINT � The moment of truth has arrived. Voters will decide this month whether to support or snuff the city�s tough anti-tobacco ordinance, which bans smoking in just about every indoor space in town, except homes, bars, tobacco stores and motel rooms. The Jackson County Clerk�s Office today will mail out more than 6,800 ballots for the Sept. 19 special election. What happens next lies in the voters� hands. Mayor Bill Walton hopes voters will make a statement to the town�s youth by supporting the ordinance, which the City Council adopted in January. Cafe owner Larry Thornton sees things differently. In February, he stopped the anti-smoking law from going into effect by gathering enough signatures to put the question to the voters. He hopes they�re on his side. Though Central Point is the first Southern Oregon city to take up the controversial smoking issue, the debate is not uncommon in other parts of the state. Since Corvallis went smoke-free in January 1998, Baker City and two counties � Multnomah and Benton � have followed suit. Several cities also have worked to cut down on youth access to tobacco products by passing ordinances that ban self-service tobacco displays. In Grants Pass, the City Council banned smoking in city parks. "It�s a fairly national trend," said Clay Parton, tobacco prevention program manager for the Oregon Health Division. "There are over 850 cities across the nation that have enacted local ordinances banning smoking in the workplace," he said. "It�s a really big health issue." Smoke-free workplace ordinances seek to protect employees and customers from the adverse effects of inhaling secondhand smoke. For that reason, some cities, such as Corvallis, have banned smoking in bars as well as restaurants. "When we stood back and looked at it from a health standpoint, there�s no reason why cocktail waitresses and bartenders should be exposed to secondhand smoke and not teachers and bank people," said Benton County health educator Dana Kaye. The Central Point ordinance exempts bars from the smoking ban since only adults are allowed to enter those establishments, Walton said. The smoke-free law isn�t intended to curb adults� habits so much as to make a statement to children that smoking is not acceptable, he explained. "It�s the cultural factor of saying to young people that smoking is not the right thing to do," Walton said. He hopes the youth smoking rate will decrease if children aren�t trying to mimic adult behavior. Parton�s health department statistics add weight to the claim that employees, including teens, who work in smoke-free establishments are less likely to start smoking and more likely to quit. Teens employed at smoke-free workplaces are one-third less likely to smoke than those who work in smoking establishments, Parton said. More than three-fourths of smokers say they want to quit and they�re four times more likely to succeed if their place of business is non-smoking, he added. Parton, a former smoker, offers up himself as evidence. While trying to quit 20 years ago, he gave up cigarettes four times but couldn�t break the habit. "Then the place I worked went smoke-free and I quit the next day and never relapsed," he said. Bad habits aside, some business owners feel they have the right to decide how to run their shops. "The business owners need to run their own place," said Thornton, who owns The Old Center Cafe. "It�s our right and it should stay our right. "It takes money to start a business; it�s a gamble," he added. "You don�t need anybody changing the rules in midstream." Thornton said he stood up to the ordinance because he feels government�s long arm is reaching too far. "What are they going to go after next?" he asked. "Fatty foods, potato chips, coffee?" Of course, Thornton is also worried about losing customers to Medford businesses that do allow smoking just a stone�s throw down the road. Bill Perry, director of governmental relations for the Oregon Restaurant Association, said that may be a legitimate concern. "Restaurants don�t make money on cigarettes, but if one business can offer something that another can�t, it�s going to be a competitive issue," he said. The Oregon Restaurant Association favors a statewide ban on smoking in restaurants as a solution to the issue, Perry said. Local ordinances, he said, can pit restaurants against similar businesses in neighboring towns. Health officials, however, point to studies showing that sales don�t decrease when customers can�t smoke. A nationwide study published in the July 1994 American Journal of Public Health found that smoke-free restaurant ordinances do not adversely affect restaurant sales, Parton said. An Oregon Health Division study of Corvallis bars met with similar results, said Kaye. Though video poker activity dropped sharply, compared with Albany about 13 miles away, liquor and beer sales didn�t significantly change after the Corvallis ordinance passed. "For the most part, people just go outside to smoke and continue to frequent the same places where they�d been going," Kaye said. "I guess those smokers and drinkers are creatures of habit." The anti-tobacco ordinance is available online on Central Point�s Web site: http://www.ci.central-point.or.us Other communities pass smoking rules Central Point�s anti-smoking ordinance bans smoking in most enclosed public spaces, including restaurants, taxis and meeting rooms. Private homes, bars, motel rooms and tobacco stores are exempt. It also bans smoking within 10 feet of a doorway in buildings where smoking is prohibited. It bans self-service tobacco displays and imposes fines and other penalties on shops that sell tobacco products to minors. And it requires shops that sell tobacco to be licensed with the city. The ordinance is the first of its kind in Jackson County, but passing tough tobacco laws is a trend across the nation. Here�s a look at anti-tobacco laws from around the state: Baker City: requires smoke-free workplaces, exempts bars. Approved by 52 percent of voters in May 2000. Beaverton: makes retailer responsible for tobacco sales to minors. (State law holds clerks responsible.) Benton County: requires smoke-free workplaces, exempts bars. Prohibits self-service tobacco displays and licenses tobacco retailers. Corvallis: requires smoke-free workplaces, including bars. Prohibits self-service tobacco displays and licenses tobacco retailers. Passed by City Council and upheld by voters, effective January 1998. Grants Pass: bans smoking in city parks, except in certain paved lots; passed by City Council. Multnomah County: requires smoke-free workplaces, exempts bars, bingo parlors, truck stops, etc. Passed by commissioners, effective July 2000. Pendleton, Silverton, Vernonia, Wheeler: ban self-service tobacco displays. A few other Oregon communities are discussing whether to pass anti-smoking laws: Eugene: City Council in July discussed plans for a comprehensive smoke-free workplace ordinance. Lake Oswego: City Council is expected to consider a smoke-free workplace ordinance in September. Philomath: City Council approved ban of self-service tobacco displays. Voters will decide a smoke-free workplace ordinance in November. Information: Jackson County Health and Human Services Division/Oregon Health Division Obituaries | Sports | Business | Classifieds | Tempo | Prime Times | So Oregon Sites | Outdoor Journal | Subscribe | Contact | Movies | Advertise | Real Estate Showcase | Archive | Editorials | Letters to the editor | Religion | Wake-up Call | NIE | Cyber Chef | Job Network | So Oregon Weather | WSJ Northwest | Forums | AP Wire | AP Money | F.A.Q. | Awards Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. The Community Newspaper Subsidiary of Dow Jones & Co, Inc Copyright �The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA