Kevin Kain's List: Essay 4

• Research shows that bans decrease the overall number of cigarettes people smoke  and in some cases, actually result in people quitting.
• Hurt adds that bans help decrease the urge to smoke in another way: They  de-normalize it.

• dramatic drop to the "near elimination" of harmful effects of "second-hand"  smoke - passive smoking

• Statistician Stanton Glantz, at the University of California, San Francisco,  and colleagues studied diagnoses of heart attacks in the town of Helena,  Montana, where the ban was imposed.

• Their estimate of a potential 7,500 job losses at a press  conference today was the opening salvo in the smoking ban debate.
• "My customers want to smoke," said Rick Swindlehurst, owner of three  food-and-drink establishments in Mount Pleasant that allow smoking. He's also  part-owner of a smoke-free restaurant there.

• He said he allows smoking in the bar areas of his businesses,  but not in the restaurant sections. Swindlehurst estimated 20 percent of his  clientele are smokers. A smoking ban would mean the loss of that 20 percent of  his business to the nearby Soaring Eagle Casino.

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• Some opponents of the bill say it takes away business owners' fundamental right  to choose how to run their establishments, while supporters of the ban argue it  protects against the harmful effects of second-hand smoke.

• Rep. Jimmy Love Sr. (D-Lee) said this month he likely  would support the smoking ban legislation.

   

  "I just think from the information I get from public  feedback, people favor non-smoking restaurants and businesses," Love said.

• Richard Blackwelder, a Sanford resident and smoker,  said he wasn't opposed to banning smoking in places like restaurants. But he  said removing smoking from bars, which don't cater to families, would take away  some personal freedoms.

   

  "A bar is for drinking, talking and smoking," he  said. "This is our last refuge."
• Barry McIver, general manager at Ham's Restaurant on Horner Boulevard, said he  thought a no-smoking policy wouldn't affect restaurants too much as long as they  still provided good service. About half of Ham's seating is smoking and half is  non-smoking.
• "We have a fair amount of smokers who come in, but we also have people who come  in who wish there wasn't a smoking area," McIver said.
• A person who disregards the warning could be given a fine of no more than $50,  according to the legislation.

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• The number of non-smoking bar workers with respiratory problems, such as coughs,  has fallen 17%, according to a study published online Monday in BMJ,  formerly the British Medical Journal.
• The republic's new law has proven popular, even with smokers: 83% of Irish  smokers say the law was a "good" or "very good" thing, the study says.

• Nearly half of Irish smokers say the ban has made them more  likely to quit, according to the Tobacco Control article. Among Irish  smokers who have quit, 80% said the law helped them give up smoking, and 88% say  the ban helped them remain smoke-free.

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