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Issue
A statewide smoking ban fails in the Legislature's final days for this year.
Our Say
Lawmakers have a mandate to approve this ban, for the good of public health and the economy. Our elected officials should continue to press for this just as soon as they can next year.
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I am upset she has taken to smoking with co-workers to deal with stress. I don't like smoking. My mother smokes, and I find it disgusting. . . .
I love Jasmine, and it's devastating to me to say this, but I can't be with a smoker. Our relationship has been great, but I do not choose to spend my life in a haze of tobacco smoke. I am in college, and every day I see kids my age outside freezing their butts off for a smoke because it isn't allowed inside.
People who reach for a cigarette when they are feeling stressed regard the cigarette as a "friend" they can hold onto. What they don't realize is that the cigarette is holding onto them - and occasional smokers become dependent not only on the ritual but the "drug."
You have a hard choice to make, and so does Jasmine. Perhaps it will be easier if Jasmine does the choosing. Tell her that if you smell tobacco on her hair, skin, breath or clothing, you won't kiss her. If she hasn't quit smoking within 30 days, you'll have your answer.
Citing distaste for excessive government control and hoping to avoid overstepping existing state laws, the Charlevoix County Board of Commissioners repealed the regulation with a unanimous Wednesday, Feb. 27 vote.
"My bottom line is: Were do we draw the line for control?," said chairman of the board and District 2 Charlevoix County Commissioner Chris Christensen. "There were no citations written for it and business owners were clamoring about having it removed."
He added, "We were against it because it was excessive control (by) government." . . .
"I don't like the idea of the little old health department creating a law that supersedes state law," Drebenstedt said. "To me, it's sort of like if I'm a GM (General Motors) man and I'm going to make a law that says you can't buy a Ford."
He added, "We cannot stop people from having their own little vices. I think we've got enough out there telling people in the public what not to do without making another law."
Dec. 19 the Michigan Licensed Beverage Association (MLBA) and the Small Business Association of Michigan (SBAM) commended Michigan lawmakers for "protecting the economic viability of small businesses across the state by not taking up a statewide smoking ban - House Bill 4163."
House Bill 4163 - which would ban smoking in all workplaces, including restaurants and bars - was struck down early Friday morning when conference committee members could not reach agreement on the ban.
House Bill 4163 will now die and a new bill will have to be reintroduced in 2009 for the issue to be taken up by the Legislature.
"Lawmakers decided to leave a present under the tree for every small business in Michigan this year," said Lance Binoniemi, MLBA executive director. "I want to thank conference committee members Sen Alan Cropsey, Sen. Alan Sanborn and Rep. Dave Hildenbrand for standing their ground to protect our state's business climate and saving thousands of jobs and hundreds of businesses across Michigan from going up in smoke." . . .
This is what we're down to. Our do-nothing lawmakers are so irrelevant to our lives that their main accomplishment is to strangle the life out of an issue through gridlock rather than resolution.
On Dec. 16, Chronicle staff writer Heather Lynn Peters spoke with Helen Sherman, office assistant to the Muskegon Community Health Project, to discuss banning smoking in restaurants and bars statewide. It is an issue that has been debated extensively recently as the state House and e tried and failed to reach an agreement before the legislative session ended Friday. . . .
Q: Why is it so important to make these places smoke-free?
A: The Surgeon General has established, using very conservative measurements, that the secondhand smoke is a health hazard. It's an asthma trigger for a start and secondhand smoke can be as dangerous to an individual's health as being a smoker. So having smoking in restaurants is not only damaging the health of the clients but also we're concerned about the workers there who can't exactly walk out.
Q: Would you support a partial ban -- for example, banning smoking during certain hours?
B: Some restaurants have done that in Muskegon and have been nonsmoking up until 10 p.m. or on weekends. But there is a lingering effect and we'd rather they went totally smoke free.
Michigan's proposed mandatory smoking ban at restaurants and bars was snuffed out for this year.
But supporters of the ban said Friday they already are planning their next move, either in the Legislature in 2009 or on Election Day in 2010.
"We remain firmly committed to this fight," Judy Stewart, state government relations director for the American Cancer Society's Great Lakes Division, said in a statement after state lawmakers let the smoking ban legislation die at the end of their 2007-08 session. "We will review all possible options for the coming year and will do whatever it takes to make Michigan smokefree."
Some restaurant, bar and casino owners will do everything they can to keep Michigan one of the 20 or so states without some type of a public workplace smoking ban. Business owners say they should have the right to continue making their own decisions about allowing smoking based on customer demand. More bars and restaurants voluntary choose to go smokefree each year.
Erion Vatnikaj, 27, said he's "very happy" the smoking ban didn't pass. The Macomb Township man says he would stop going out to bars if he couldn't light up.
Another year, another crushing disappointment for anti-smoking advocates, who are vowing to rekindle their fight to ban workplace smoking after state lawmakers failed to reach a compromise Friday.
Despite early hopes, the anti-smoking legislation collapsed when lawmakers in the House and Senate failed to find common ground. The House wanted an exception for casinos, racetracks and cigar bars, while the Senate supported a ban in all workplaces. The collapse was a painful blow to those who fought for Michigan to become the 35th state with such a ban.Gov. Jennifer Granholm said during a news conference in Lansing that failure to pass the workplace smoking ban was her biggest disappointment on the final legislative session day. She said she believes the Legislature will conform to "overwhelming" public sentiment next year and pass the ban. But if not, a petition drive is possible.
"If it doesn't get done in the next go-round, there will be an opportunity to put it on the ballot and let the citizens decide," she said.
Advocates of the ban may pursue a return to the Legislature and start over or consider a ballot drive to allow citizens to decide, said Judy Stewart, campaign manager for the Campaign for Smokefree Air.
So, evidence shows that eliminating indoor smoking leads to lower employer maintenance costs, insurance premiums and labor costs. Based on this latest data, 34 states including our neighbors Ohio, Illinois, Minnesota, and Ontario have gone smoke-free. Why can't Michigan?
We are fortunate as a community to have the leadership in the state Senate of Dr. Tom George in repeatedly introducing and advocating for legislation on this vital issue. It is now time for all our lawmakers to make fact-based decisions. The best way to protect Michigan workers and our economy is by enacting a statewide smoke-free air law. Economically or medically, smokefree environments just make sense.
But the Legislature did not reach agreement on a proposed smoking ban for Michigan bars and restaurants.
Next year's Michigan House will be led by Democrats, and more than a third of its members will be serving in a first term.
Republicans will lead next year's state Senate, which returns with all but one of the same lawmakers.
In refusing for months to ban smoking in public places, Michigan legislators are playing dangerous games with their constituents' health.
Most legislators in both parties claim to support a smoke free environment. But something unsavory is happening in smoke-filled back rooms or the bill would have been on the governor's desk months ago.
It's time to lift this political smokescreen and explain how the unscrupulous power of the tobacco and casino lobbies, wielded against timid legislative "leaders," has thwarted good legislation and put our health at risk. But first let's lay down the facts about secondhand smoke. . . .
Michigan voters by almost a 2-1 margin want to be able to go out for dinner and drinks without being subjected to secondhand smoke. It's time for Michigan to ditch one more bad habit, protect its restaurant and bar workforce, bring health care costs down and improve our image of a state that is slow to catch on to healthy new trends.
The Michigan Legislature has passed bills aimed at punishing store owners and others caught with tobacco smuggled from around the country.
The state is a ripe destination for illegal cigarettes because of its high per-pack tax.
Bills sent to Gov. Jennifer Granholm Thursday and early Friday would make it a civil infraction to have as few as 180 illegal cigarettes, or nearly one carton's worth.
A June 2008 study published in the Hawaii Medical Journal by the Hawaii Department of Health showed a 25 percent decrease in the number of patrons who frequented restaurants and bars following Hawaii's smoking ban.
In March of this year, Michael Pakko of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis released a study on the economic impact of a smoking ban on restaurants and bars in Columbia, Mo. Pakko found economic losses between 6.5 to 11 percent when 100 percent bans were implemented.
It is important for Michigan business owners to make their own decision to go smoke-free. Lawmakers must be careful not to infringe on how business owners run their business.
House Bill 4163 takes a far too simplistic approach to solve a highly complex issue that will directly affect thousands of business owners and workers in Michigan.
--Lance Binoniemi is executive director of the Michigan Licensed Beverage Association in Lansing.
Suppose that for $35 you could buy a permit from the Michigan Secretary of State allowing you and your passengers to drive around without wearing those restrictive seatbelts.
Friendly branch office staff would sell you an organ donation specialty plate so the cops wouldn't pull you over.
If having traffic safety officials authorize motor vehicle death sounds good, how about insisting in state law that the Michigan Department of Community Health sanction smoking in indoor public places?
As the Legislature thankfully nears its 2008 expiration date, that's apparently what was required last week to secure passage of a smoking ban, sort of, in Michigan. A proposed opt-out clause would allow bars and restaurants to secure a state license allowing smoking on the premises. . . .
Welcome to Lansing.
Both GOP Sens. Alan Cropsey of DeWitt and Alan Sanborn of Richmond voted "no" back in May. Although the third Senate conferee, Democrat Ray Basham of Taylor, is one of biggest smoking opponents in the Legislature, his one vote isn't enough.
Cropsey said smoking bans are un-American. Sanborn said government shouldn't be "sticking its nose where it doesn't belong."
Given that nearly three dozen Red states and Blue states alike have passed a smoking ban that Michigan apparently can't, government's nose just might not be the most important one at issue here.
The state Legislature has a last-gasp chance today to pass a meaningful ban on smoking in most public places. What a nice Christmas present that would be for the nonsmoking majority and for bar and restaurant employees whose health is imperiled daily by secondhand smoke. What a great opportunity to send children a message that the leaders of Michigan know smoking is dangerous and public health is important.