Huckabee says future may see smoking ban
Posted on Wednesday, December 14, 2005
Gov. Mike Huckabee crushed past statewide efforts to ban smoking in restaurants, but he now says he's considering a push to snuff out smoking in all workplaces.
He's not planning that fight for any special legislative sessions called this year, but he is looking into introducing a smoking ban measure next year, said Alice Stewart, a spokesman for the governor.
"Maybe to some people's surprise, I would support a statewide workplace smoking ban, which to me is doing it in the right place for the right reasons,"Huckabee said in an interview with The Associated Press. "It presents for [workers ] a health risk we should eliminate, in the same way we would eliminate other health risks like lead paint or asbestos."
Health officials say smoking restrictions are an important way of protecting nonsmokers. Secondhand smoke has been linked to heart disease, lung cancer and other health problems in people who don't smoke.
Twenty-three states, including Arkansas, placed no smoking restrictions on private-sector work sites in 2004, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Seven states had workplace smoking bans.
Huckabee's endorsement of smoking restrictions follows recent news that the state's adult smoking rate increased slightly in 2004 to 25. 7 percent.
The uptick occurred despite the state's nearly $ 43 million investment in smoking cessation and prevention programs and the governor's own Healthy Arkansas campaign, which aims to reduce adult smoking to 12 percent by January 2007.
Huckabee has said he is considering a run for the presidency and has been touring the country promoting his Healthy America campaign, a national version of his state program.
Stewart said Huckabee's new interest in a workplace smoking ban isn't a reversal of his previous position. During the past legislative session, he withheld his support of a bill to ban smoking in restaurants and bars because he didn't want to single out those establishments.
In fact, Stewart said, Huckabee asked the legislation's sponsor to change the bill so that it would apply to all workplaces, but his request was denied.
"They felt the governor was simply trying to kill the bill,"she said.
Rep. Jay Bradford, D-White Hall, a sponsor of the legislation, said Huckabee never talked to him about the bill, but Bradford said the governor may have spoken to another bill sponsor.
Bradford said Tuesday that he found the governor's new support for smoking restrictions exciting.
"That's the magic ingredient that will pass that legislation - having the support of Mike Huckabee,"Bradford said.
In 2001, Huckabee refused to approve a state Board of Health's vote to ban smoking in restaurants. At that time he defended his decision on the basis of the rights of private-property owners.
"While I personally deplore tobacco use,"Huckabee wrote in a letter to the board in 2001," it's a legal product for adults. Like some other legal activities the law allows for adults, it's repulsive to me. But until the law changes, one citizen cannot prohibit others the right to engage in lawful behavior unless it directly infringes upon the rights of others."
That's the argument some people who oppose smoking restrictions could use against a Huckabee plan to ban smoking in workplaces.
"If everyone wants places to be nonsmoking and they use the marketplace to do that, that's great. But it should not be at the behest of government intrusion on private-property rights,"Brad Cazort, a Little Rock city director, said when asked about a potential statewide smoking ban.
Cazort also opposes a proposal to ban work-site smoking in his community.
Huckabee has often said he his approach is not to become the "grease police"or the "sugar sheriff,"placing government restrictions on the way Arkansans eat.
Asked if a smoking ban isn't government restricting cigarette use, Stewart said, Huckabee "doesn't want to be Smokey the Bear, either. He wants to create a healthy environment for people whether they are working at a place or whether they are a consumer at a place."
Dr. Joe Thompson, the state's chief health officer, said the governor's position may be influenced by new advisers offering new recommendations.
Huckabee appointed Thompson and a new director of the state Division of Health this year.
"As we increasingly know what the risks of secondhand smoking [are ], it doesn't make sense just to go for [a smoking ban ] in bars and restaurants,"Thompson said.
Kenny Hall, vice president of governmental affairs for the Arkansas state Chamber of Commerce, said he doesn't know how businesses will react to the idea of a work-site smoking ban.
Businesses do not typically like increased government restrictions, but the state Chamber supported the Huckabee plan to spend the state's tobacco settlement dollars on health-related programs.
"I've seen so much of the business community get split up on the restaurant ban. I don't know where they are because this is the first time I've heard a discussion come up about the workplace,"Hall said.
Thompson said that although restaurants and bars have complained that a smoking ban could lead to decreased revenue, the evidence documented in scientific journals has shown the opposite.
"The evidence strongly supports that they'll draw new patrons in that right now are avoiding restaurants and bars because of the smoke,"he said.
Arkansas collected about $ 127 million in cigarette taxes during the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2005.
The state collects 59 cents per pack.
Stewart said discussions about a possible smoking ban have not gotten far enough to consider the financial impact on that revenue.
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