Smoke-free workplace supporters look forward to anticipated legislation
By Amy Lavalley Post-Tribune correspondent February 17, 2012 1:28PM
A group of students from the Duneland Boys & Girls Club listen as Sandy Carlson, vice president of clinical services at Porter Starke Services, speaks about her workplace being completely smoke-free for employees and clients for three months now during a meeting with legislators about tobacco control at City Hall in Valparaiso, Ind. Friday February 17, 2012. | Stephanie Dowell~Sun-Times Media
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For more on the Tobacco Education and Prevention Coalition for Porter County, go to www.valpo.edu/tepc.
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Updated: March 19, 2012 8:05AM
VALPARAISO — Strongbow Inn went smoke-free three months before Valparaiso’s ordinance limiting smoking to bars, private clubs, smoke shops and restaurants went into effect.
“I don’t believe it’s influenced our business in any negative way,” said restaurant owner Russ Adams, adding smoking had been limited to the restaurant’s bar area before the ban.
Adams spoke Friday during a legislative meeting sponsored by the Tobacco Education and Prevention Coalition for Porter County.
The event, held every few years by the coalition, also featured state Sen. Ed Charbonneau, R-Valparaiso, and state Rep. Ed Soliday, R-Valparaiso, who provided a legislative update on the state’s efforts to go smoke-free.
The time is right for a smoking ban, said Susan Gleason, the coalition’s program coordinator.
“I think we’re long overdue. I think workers for a long time have had the right to work in a smoke-free workplace,” she said.
Other representatives from Porter-Starke Services, Valparaiso University and Porter Health System spoke about successful attempts to make those places smoke-free. Children from the Duneland unit of the Boys and Girls Clubs talked about what a tobacco-free world would mean to them.
A state Senate committee is expected to take action next week on a House-approved bill that gives bars an 18-month exemption to the ban. The proposal would allow smoking at the state’s casinos, private clubs, tobacco stores, and cigar and hookah bars.
Soliday and Charbonneau outlined how bills pass through the legislature for the two dozen or so people who attended the meeting at City Hall. Previous attempts at a statewide ban have failed, though Soliday said he has consistently voted for the bans.
“What you won’t want to hear is that the only way it will pass is with compromise,” he said, adding the measure won’t pass without it. “People who voted against this are not bad people. They are people who say this is America and we should be able to do what we want.”
Noting that the smoking ban is “a tough issue,” Soliday said the current proposal provides the highest hope for passage.
“You can understand what people are saying, regardless of which side of the issue you’re on,” Charbonneau said.
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