St. Louisans are breathing a bit easier in 2011, after new smoke free ordinances went into effect January 2 in St. Louis City, St. Louis County and some of its municipalities.
“The City of St. Louis’ Smoke Free Air Act is the most significant health improvement for the City in the past 50 years,” said Pamela Walker, interim director of Health. “It will have an immediate impact on heart disease, our leading cause of death. It will also positively impact rates of cancer, stroke, COPD, and complications relating to diabetes. Smoking regulations benefit society in numerous ways: by encouraging individuals to smoke less or quit smoking, reducing secondhand smoke and lowering medical costs.”
Smoking is prohibited in all enclosed public spaces in the City of St. Louis, including licensed child and adult daycare facilities, bingo facilities, aquariums, galleries, museums, elevators, laundromats, professional offices, retail stores, health care facilities, hotels and both public and private educational facilities.
“The Smoke Free Air Act is a small but necessary step towards making the City of St. Louis a healthier place to live and have a job,” said St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay.
The first day of the Spring Semester at Harris-Stowe State University was met with a smoking ban inside its buildings and on the entire campus, including outdoor areas.
Dwyane Smith, Ph.D., HSSU vice president for academic affairs, said, “This is a major step in the right direction in providing faculty, staff and students with a healthy, smoke-free environment by extending the smoking ban to include outdoor areas of our campus. Certainly, the health and well-being of the University community is the utmost priority in implementing this smoking ban.”
The city ordinance does not apply to private residences (unless it’s a licensed day care facility), outdoor places of employment and casino gaming areas, tobacco retail stores, bars, some private clubs. Bars in existence when the law went into effect are exempt for five years.
Lambert Airport is snuffing out all of its indoor smoking lounges, only allowing smoking outdoors.
The smoke-free ordinance that covers the county and municipalities located within St. Louis County is the first step in addressing a public health issue.
“It is not a perfect ordinance, for me, the better ordinance would have no exemptions at all, and I think that should always be the ultimate goal,” said St. Louis County Health Director, Dr. Delores Gunn.
New smoke-free laws in the County cover most indoor workplaces and public areas with some exemptions, including private homes (that do no operate as daycare locations), and some bars.
“Mainly like casino floors, or certain or particular bars that have less than 25 percent of their revenue in any type of food service…there are also some exceptions with private clubs…and also a certain percentage of hotel rooms. Those are the general exemptions,” Gunn said.
The National Heart Lung and Blood Institute reports smoking is the main preventable cause of death and illness in the U.S. and estimates cigarette smoking causes about one in every five deaths in the United States annually.
Smoking harms nearly every organ in the body, including the heart, blood vessels, lungs, eyes, mouth, reproductive organs, bones, and digestive organs.
Secondhand smoke contains many of the same harmful chemicals that people inhale when they smoke. It damages the heart and blood vessels in the same ways that active smoking does. Secondhand smoke greatly increases the risk of heart attack and death.
And while this first smoke free ordinance in the County applies only to tobacco-based products, harmful chemicals in electronic or e-cigarettes that are exhaled into the breathing spaces of others – may warrant further scrutiny as a public health issue.
According to the American Nonsmokers Rights Foundation, only 20 cities in Missouri have smoke-free workplaces and restaurants, and only 15 cities have smoke-free bars.
“In order to really be effective, we need something state-wide.,” Gunn said. “Most of the states across the country – United States, have bought into this and have moved in that direction and have been very, very successful. Gunn said. “And I look forward to the day that St. Louis Missouri -really as a ‘Show Me State,’ stands up and passes statewide legislation for smoking.”
Box: For an updated list of businesses with approved, pending or denied exemptions to the smoke-free ordinance in St. Louis County, go to http://tinyurl.com/CountyExemption.
The County also works with companies and organizations with 50 or more employees to develop a smoking cessation program. For more information, call Trisha Gillespie at 314-533-6410 x. 6314.
For help on learning how to quit smoking, call the 24-hour quit line at 800-784-8669 or visit www.letsfaceitstl.com for more about smoke-free resources in your area.
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