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Tom Lubnau has no illusions about the dangers of cigarette smoke. Last year, the Wyoming representative had to watch his mother waste away from smoking-related cancer. By the end of her battle, her doctor said she looked like “an Auschwitz victim.”
His is not a unique story. The Wyoming Health Department estimates that roughly 676 Wyoming residents die each year from smoking-related causes.
But as a sitting member on the Wyoming House of Representatives’ Labor, Health & Social Services Committee, Lubnau has found himself in a unique position each of the past two years. A coalition of health-care workers and others, calling itself Smokefree Wyoming, has twice presented a bill to ban smoking in public venues
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A coalition of health care workers and others will make another attempt at persuading the state Legislature to institute some type of statewide smoking ban.
Smokefree Wyoming has twice presented a bill to ban smoking in public venues such as bars, restaurants and sporting arenas across the state. .. . .
Next month, the Legislature's Labor, Health and Social Services Committee is scheduled to discuss another smoking ban, a move that Smokefree Wyoming officials hope will result in a committee sponsored bill.
Smokefree Wyoming leaders Loretta Wolf of the American Cancer Society and Jan Drury of the American Heart Association are expressing confidence that this year the group will make some progress in the Legislature.
They are buoyed by a recent survey suggesting that Wyoming residents could be ready to see a change in smoking laws.
In August it will have been two years since Cheyenne implemented a smoking ban in public places. While there were howls of protest in the beginning, most local residents, and those who come to this city routinely, have grown used to the fact that they can't smoke in restaurants or bars.
About a year after the ban went into effect, a study showed there was no financial advantage or disadvantage . . .
We can only hope that the Legislature has the foresight and intestinal fortitude to take this major step in protecting the health of Wyomingites.
State corrections officials say a tobacco ban in Wyoming's prisons is working well although they do find contraband cigarettes and smokeless tobacco from time to time.
Department of Corrections spokeswoman Melinda Brazzale said the department has been compiling figures for tobacco infractions since tobacco became contraband on July 1, 2006.
Wyoming State Penitentiary Warden Mike Murphy said corrections officers search every cell at the Rawlins prison at least once a month. Confiscated tobacco has ranged from hand-rolled cigarettes to entire cartons, although chewing tobacco seems to be preferred because it's less detectible than cigarettes when used.
This anti-tobacco effort (via The Media Artist) appeared on gas station dispensers in Wyoming. Above a bottle dripping sludge, a bright sign reads, "You're not gonna sip this. But you'll kiss where it came from?" Campaign URL: WY.Quitnet.com.
We didn't get it at first, mainly because when we think "tobacco" we think "smoking," and we spent a brainfucked eight minutes pondering whether there's a connection between cigarette toxins and fossil fuel. And then IT HIT US.
That sludge is SPITTOON FODDER from CHEWING TOBACCO.
TUNKHANNOCK - Wyoming County eateries are going smoke free even as a statewide smoking ban continued to be debated last week by a joint House and Senate Committee.
Although the fate of the ban is uncertain, Wyoming County Cancer/Tobacco Partnership believes that more business owners will choose to have a smoke free environment.
The cancer/tobacco partnership estimates that the county has 18 eateries that prohibit smoking, out of about 50 places where one can sit down and eat.
Many claim that second-hand smoke is really bad (according to the studies quoted), but there have been a great many studies that say second-hand smoke is not harmful. Some studies say that it does, but it is minicscule, and really presents no problems. The news media does not print stories about those, because they do not want folks to know about them.
I have been around smokers for 65 years, and there has never been any evidence of cancer in me. Smoking can cause cancer in some folks, but not everyone.
The 59th Legislature wrapped up on Friday, but the work for state representatives and senators is far from over.
Legislative "interim" committees will meet for the next several months to discuss a long list of important issues that could turn into bills next session.
The list includes a couple of topics -- a statewide smoking ban and electronic voting in the Legislature -- that have been shunned in recent years by the Management Council, which approves the topics.
Rep. Tom Lubnau, R-Gillette, who serves on the Management Council, said the Legislature isn't afraid to look at any topics, especially when voters make it clear that they consider them important. A number of polls have shown that a majority of voters across the state favor a ban on smoking in public places.
The Wyoming House of Representatives on Thursday rejected a proposed statewide ban on smoking in public places, including bars and restaurants. The House voted 31-28 to introduce the bill. It failed to gain introduction under a provision of the rules that requires at least a two-thirds vote for nonfinancial matters to be heard in the budget session. Rep. Lori Millin, D-Cheyenne, had proposed the ban.
Statewide smoking restrictions are in play for the legislative session that begins Monday.
Despite a death threat and nasty messages from some residents, state Rep. Lori Millin, D-Cheyenne, is sponsoring House Bill 87. It would prohibit smoking in enclosed public places statewide. . . .
Millin's proposal would prohibit smoking in places such as bars, restaurants, offices and on public transportation.
"The petition is invalid."
This was a short sentence written by city attorney Ford Bussart to sum up why the the Green River City Council didn't need to take action on a petition filed against the smoking ordinance.
In a letter to the Green River City Council, the city administrator and the city clerk, Bussart stated why he believed the petition filed against the smoking ordinance was invalid.
The smoking ordinance went through many changes. First, it was passed as a comprehensive smoking ban on Dec. 4. At that time, there was a petition circulating against that ordinance.
Then on Dec. 18, the Council reconsidered the motion and amended it to exclude the bars, lounges, taverns and private clubs.
However, on Jan. 7 a petition against the Dec. 18 amended ordinance was filed.
Bussart stated in his letter: "There is clear and convincing evidence that one or more individuals procured possession of the original petition from its sponsors; changed the title of the petition without the knowledge and consent of its signatories; copied the signatures of the original signatories and affixed copies of those signatures to the altered title of the petition." . . .
Councilman Dan Beckermann said he was happy the petition was not legitimate because it would have put the whole smoking ordinance on hold until the city could have a special election, which is exactly what Beckermann wanted to avoid.
Somebody, it seems, didn't like the smoking ban compromise after all.
Smokers in mostly smoke-free Green River hardly had time to come in out of the cold and back into the bars before a petition was submitted to city officials seeking to overturn the town's new smoking ordinance.
But just who exactly submitted the petition remains a mystery, city officials and bar owners said Monday.
"It certainly wasn't us," said Ponderosa Bar owner Bobby Easton, who is also president of the Green River Liquor Dealers Association. . . .
Council members approved a revised smoking ordinance last month exempting bars, taverns and private clubs after reaching a compromise of sorts with bar owners.
No one wants to see people suffer from smoking-related illnesses. It's no different with Sen. Michael B. Enzi, Wyoming Republican, except that he has a pulpit and a plan. And for him, it's personal.
Mr. Enzi's idea is to make America a nearly smoke-free country. He scoffs at the idea that his campaign is an affront to free enterprise and a violation of Republican principles.
"I remember my first Senate campaign. I got a check for $5,000 from a tobacco company. I had such a strong opposition to tobacco, I said, 'If it bothers me this much, it's the wrong thing to do.' I sent the check back, and I've always turned down tobacco money."
For him, tobacco use is a deeply personal issue. The senator recalls how his father, a smoker for 50 years, quit after seeing a video of children reaching into a beaker representing a smoker's lung filled with a year's worth of cigarette tar.
GREEN RIVER -- Somebody, it seems, didn't like the smoking ban compromise after all.
"It certainly wasn't us," said Ponderosa Bar owner Bobby Easton, who is also president of the Green River Liquor Dealers Association.
"We're (OK) with the compromise," Easton said.
EVANSTON -- Smokers are braving subzero cold, pedestrians are avoiding smokers on sidewalks, and everybody's stepping over butts littering entrances to bars and restaurants in Evanston these days.
But generally, people here are learning to live with the new smoking ordinance that went into effect in September, officials said.
The new law bans smoking in all buildings used by the public, including bars, taverns and private clubs.
"There's just a few courtesy issues that need to be worked out ... but so far (residents) haven't made a big deal out of it," said John Porter, Chamber of Commerce president and owner of Porter's Fireworks and Liquor Store.