Smoking ban bill defeated by Ind. Senate committee

The bill that would make it illegal to smoke in most public places in Indiana was recently defeated in an Indiana Senate committee.

House Bill 1018 passed in the House with a 68-31 vote Jan. 31. However, it lost in an 8-1 vote in the Senate Public Policy committee. It was written and sponsored by state Rep. Charlie Brown, D-Gary.

The proposed bill would have been enacted in July. It would have prohibited smoking in public places and enclosed areas of employment, though it had several exemptions added in the House. Bars, casinos, fraternal clubs and nursing homes could still allow smoking.

The American Cancer Society urged senators to vote against this ban if it contained exemptions.

Committee chairman, Ron Alting R-Lafayette, refused to allow any amendments to the bill that would strengthen it while it was reviewed by the committee.

Voting on the bill was slowed last month due to the House Democrat walkout, which impeded more than 100 pieces of legislation passed before Feb. 22.

There are 35 states that already have some form of smoking ban legislation in place, including Illinois, Michigan and Ohio.

Indiana is known as a smoke-heavy state, ranking fifth in the nation in number of adult smokers. Bloomington has had its own smoke-free laws since 2003.

They were designed to protect the public health and welfare of the community from health hazards induced by breathing secondhand smoke, according to www.smokefreebloomington.org.

An IU study published March 22 determined that a smoke-free air law implemented in an Indiana community did not hurt business at the off-track betting facility in that community, according to an IU News Room press release.

Brown said in a press release that he was not pleased with the exemptions that could have cost the vote in the Senate committee.

“By picking away at the edges of the ban with exemption after exemption, we are getting to the point where we might as well not even have a ban at all,” Brown said. “That runs counter to the wishes of the people of this state, and I would hope that we would pay attention to their thoughts and feelings as this debate goes along.”