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Posted on 05/22/2003 10:12:56 AM PDT by Drew68

Nonsmokers on the move

Pueblo vote buoys alliance for bans in Denver, other cities

By Dick Foster, Rocky Mountain News
May 22, 2003

Buoyed by an emphatic victory in Pueblo, Colorado's smoke-free advocates are turning to proposed nonsmoking ordinances in Denver and other Colorado cities, an organizer said Wednesday.

"We're hoping the Denver City Council will act on this soon," said Chris Sherwin, executive director of the Colorado Tobacco Education and Prevention Alliance, CTEPA.

Similar ordinances may be appearing soon in Greeley, Broomfield and Grand Junction, said Sherwin.

The Denver law would prohibit smoking in restaurants but allow it in bars. Sherwin is hoping the Denver City Council will be encouraged by the Pueblo voters who approved a tougher law banning smoking in all bars and other places of public accommodation.

Pueblo was the 10th Colorado locale to pass a strict nonsmoking ordinance that includes restaurants and other places of public accommodation. But only Pueblo and three others - Snowmass, Fort Collins and Louisville - extended the ban to bars.

"Our hope is that Denver will look at what happened in Pueblo, and decide to act on this," said Sherwin. "We hope that the council will go further than what Councilwoman (Happy) Haynes and the mayor have supported, which is covering restaurants but exempting bars. We're hopeful that the final product will be something to protect all restaurant and bar workers."

Haynes' position hadn't changed after the Pueblo vote Tuesday. She said there wasn't adequate support on Denver City Council for a broader ban to include bars.

The alliance includes Colorado chapters of the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association, the American Lung Association of Colorado and other health organizations concerned with the health effects of smoking.

"There's a growing recognition that the most heavily exposed workers are bar workers," said Sherwin. "A bartender can inhale the equivalent of a pack and a half of cigarette smoke in just one 8-hour shift."

"People are waking up to the fact and asking why a bar worker would deserve less protection than others," he said.

Sherwin said the ordinances are not intended to infringe upon smoker's rights but to protect the workers and others who do not smoke.

"The big fear and the myth is that everybody goes to a bar to smoke and that bar business will suffer," he said. "In communities that have passed these laws, people just step outside and smoke, and bar business isn't hurt as a result."

Sherwin hopes other Colorado cities will be encouraged by the Pueblo vote.

"The momentum is definitely in the direction of communities going 100 percent smoke-free," he said.

fosterd@RockyMountainNews.com or (719)633-4442

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