The American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society and the state Department of Health want the legislature to pass more aggressive smokefree laws.
By Tim Talley
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma is lagging behind in the nationwide effort to ban smoking in the workplace and public places to protect people from second-hand smoke, a coalition of state and private health care agencies said Thursday.
The group, including the state Department of Health, the American Heart Association and the American Cancer Society, urged state lawmakers to adopt smokefree laws similar to those in 22 other states that have outlawed smoking at work and in restaurants and bars.
“It’s time for Oklahoma to strengthen its statewide law,” said Cynthia Hallett, executive director of the American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation. “This is a health issue.”
The state Board of Health has estimated that 700 Oklahomans die each year from exposure to secondhand smoke, which can cause cancer, heart disease and respiratory ailments.
“The Legislature’s job is to protect the health and welfare of Oklahoma citizens,” said Wes Glinsmann of the American Heart Association.
Bob Miner, the clean indoor air coordinator for the Health Department, said the number of Oklahomans who smoke has dropped but that about 25 percent of the state’s citizens still smoke.
“There has been some reduction in recent years,” Miner said.
Smoking along with poor nutrition and lack of exercise has been cited as the leading causes of Oklahomans’ overall poor health. The Board of Health has said Oklahomans are burdened by high rates of heart disease, stroke, cancer and chronic lung disease.
In 2006, the board estimated that more than $2 billion, or $600 a person, is spent each year for smoking-related direct medical care and lost productivity.
Oklahoma was among the first states in the nation to regulate smoking in public places in 2003. But the measure exempts stand-alone bars, restaurants with ventilated smoking areas and some workplaces and pre-empts counties and cities from adopting stronger regulations.
Five years later, 30 other states and hundreds of counties and cities have adopted laws that provide more effective protection from the harmful effects of secondhand smoke than Oklahoma, Hallett said.
Coalition members said they plan to revive legislation next year that would ban smoking in bars and other public places in the state. The measure died on the Senate floor earlier this year.
Hallett said the legislation is opposed by big tobacco companies and some restaurant and nightclub owners who claim it would have a negative impact on their business. Some restaurant owners spent thousands of dollars to build enclosed ventilated smoking rooms to comply with the 2003 law.
But Hallett said the objections are false arguments because second-hand smoke is a health issue, not an economic one.
Hallett said Oklahoma’s current smoking regulations are unfair to people with respiratory or other health problems who cannot expose themselves to tobacco smoke. She said ventilated smoking rooms leak and do not effectively protect nonsmokers from second-hand smoke.
The Board of Health has recommended repealing exemptions that allow smoking in bars and some public places as well as repeal of pre-emptive clauses that prevent local governments from adopting regulations to prevent exposure to second-hand smoke.
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