Indianapolis smoking ban set for vote tonight

Indianapolis continues to inhale secondhand cigarette smoke within many capital city restaurants and entertainment venues, despite the four-month-old Hoosier outcry for smoke-free public indoor air.\nProposal 45, a Marion County public smoking ban first proposed in February, might receive an up-or-down vote tonight by the Indianapolis City-County Council. About 2,000 communities across the nation, from Los Angeles to Minneapolis to New York, ban public smoking within bars, restaurants and work environments.\n"Smoking is a choice. It is our choice to offer both smoking and nonsmoking sections," said Hamilton County bartender Diane Edwards, while serving drinks at Mickey's Irish Pub, 13644 N. Meridian St. "It is a customer's choice to come here. Why do they have to force choices upon businesses -- no matter what they offer?"\nEdwards said she signed an anti-Marion County smoking ban petition or two within the last couple of months. She said she feels the state of Indiana might soon impose a "nonsmoking thing" on all Hoosier businesses because smoking bans are "kind of a trend right now." \nAustralia, Greece, Iran, Italy, Russia and Vietnam are also among a dozen or so countries across the world to ban public smoking due to the adverse health risks known to exist from carcinogen clouds hovering within confined spaces.\nFort Wayne and Bloomington are the only two Hoosier cities to enforce public smoking bans. Columbus and Muncie have defeated attempts to ban cigarette smoking in public places. \nThe initial proposed Indianapolis smoking ban, perceived by some Indiana residents as the most restrictive in the nation, would have prohibited smoking in all restaurants, bars and outdoor areas such as bus stations, city parks and near automated teller machines. Hoosiers also face no-smoking restrictions within all taverns, cigar bars, outdoor seating areas, bowling alleys, cabstands, tobacco outlets and outdoor sporting venues like the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. \nSupporters of the smoking ban proposal cite possible state economic gains from decreased tax-supported health care costs, increased worker productivity due to improved overall health and thousands of saved lives a year from deadly secondhand smoke. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, about 28 of every 100 Hoosiers in 2002 smoked cigarettes on a regular basis -- the fifth highest percentage in the nation. \nAccording to a 2002 report for the Marion County Health Department, Marion County residents and businesses spend an estimated $400 million or so a year on smoking and secondhand smoke related health care for themselves and their neighbors. \nProposal 45 critics, on the other hand, cite possible small business economic hardship from the supposed reality of supply and demand principles: no smoking, no smoking customers; state government intrusion in local business; and state interference in the private sector.\nA diluted Proposal 45 proposes to ban smoking only within restaurants serving patrons under 18, offices, indoor sports arenas and "other" public areas effective March 1, 2006. Most restaurants appealing to the family demographic and office spaces already ban smoking within the confines of their premises.\n"We feel our victory was in the area of exclusion. The proposal is watered down -- the only places left are bars and restaurants where minors frequent," said Gary Davis, director of P.T.'s World Famous Showclub, 7916 Pendleton Pike, of the proposed smoking ban rollbacks. "We did petitions in conjunction with Moose Lodges across the state. We also went to meetings and held up signs. Our main campaign platform: We felt (the city-county council) was regulating the type of customers and they were telling them what to do in our club. We submitted more than 92,000 names opposed to the smoking ban." \nAccording to a Greater Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce March 10 release, the business community believed the proposed smoking ban needed to balance the harmful societal effects of tobacco against "economic impairment posed by the encroachment of government regulation on the free enterprise system." Business owner fears of potential lost revenue, in other words, superseded the GICC's self-recognition of public health benefits from smoking bans like increased commercial productivity from decreased health-related chronic absenteeism.\nWilliam Styring, a Senior Fellow and economist at the Hudson Institute in Indianapolis, studied the impact of the 1999 Fort Wayne smoking ban on city food and beverage tax collections. His study concluded: "Fort Wayne's ban on smoking in restaurants has had no numerically verifiable impact on the volume of restaurant business in Allen County." About 72 of every 100 Hoosiers did not consider themselves cigarette smokers in 2002, according to CDCP data.\nDavis said the Indianapolis smoking ban drowned in legitimate business concern voiced through a strong contingency of ordinary and everyday Indiana residents opposed to government interference in the public sector. \n"If it comes about again, we will fight it -- we rallied our voices," Davis said. "You have to get your voice heard. Otherwise, (the city-county council) will think you don't care."\n-- Contact Senior Writer David A. Nosko at dnosko@indiana.edu.