Stop Smoking Way

INDIANAPOLIS – Supporters of a bill that would ban smoking in all of Indiana’s public places are trumpeting a new study of the financial and human costs of secondhand smoke as clear, persuasive evidence that state lawmakers should pass statewide smoking restrictions.

The study released Monday found that an estimated 1,194 Hoosiers died in 2007 from lung cancer, heart disease and other ailments caused by breathing secondhand cigarette smoke.

Researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine’s Bowen Research Center also concluded that secondhand smoke in homes and businesses burdened Indiana with at least $390 million in medical-related costs in 2007.

Dr. Nasser Hanna, a medical oncologist at the IU Simon Cancer Center, said he hopes the findings lead lawmakers to pass a bill sponsored by Rep. Charlie Brown, D-Gary, that would ban smoking — with no exemptions — in bars, restaurants, casinos and other public places statewide.

An Indiana House committee is scheduled to hear testimony Wednesday on Brown’s bill.

Hanna said nonsmokers who breathe secondhand smoke’s noxious chemicals experience the same rise in blood-clotting factors in their blood and constriction of their arteries as do smokers because secondhand smoke contains the same 4,000 chemical compounds found in tobacco smoke.

He said that physical response leads to tens of thousands of “needless and premature” heart attack deaths nationwide each year, and many of those who die are nonsmokers who work at businesses where smoking is tolerated.

“No one should have to work in that environment. To presume that everyone understands the real risks of secondhand smoke is naive,” Hanna said. “There is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke.”

He said research has consistently shown that heart attacks plummet the first year after municipalities enact comprehensive smoking bans.

The Bowen Research Center’s study was based in part on an analysis of data reported by the state’s hospitals in 2007. It also includes information from a 2006 report by the U.S. Surgeon General on secondhand smoke and other data.

Dr. Debra Allen, an IU professor and a director of the Bowen Research Center, said that secondhand smoke poses a heightened risk in Indiana because 24.1 percent of the state’s adult population — about 1.1 million Hoosiers — are smokers.

That ranks the state sixth in the nation in terms of its adult smoking rate, well above the national adult smoking rate of 19.8 percent.

Allen said 23.9 percent of Indiana high school students currently smoke — a percentage she said is worrisome since it’s nearly as high as the state’s adult smoking rate.

“So the tobacco industries are still getting to our young citizens,” she said.

Allen said 24 states already have statewide smoking bans in place, but less a third of Indiana’s more than 6 million residents are covered by local smoke-free ordinances.

Indiana’s former secretary of commerce, Michael “Mickey” Mauer, said Indiana is at a disadvantage when it comes to attracting new development because the state’s high smoking rate comes with an onus of higher medical costs that businesses take into account.

“It costs us opportunity,” said Mauer, a member of Smokefree Indiana.

He said Illinois and Ohio, two adjacent states that are among Indiana’s biggest competitors in luring new jobs and investments, both have comprehensive smoke-free laws.

Mauer said companies “understand the ramification of a state that does not protect its workers. They understand that if you’re not protected from secondhand smoke your health care costs are going to be higher — and today every penny counts, doesn’t it?”

Mauer also said that while some owners of bars and restaurants argue that a smoking ban would cost them business by driving away their smoking customers, he said it could also be argued that a ban might attract nonsmokers to their establishments.

Related posts:

• Pass a true public smoking ban
• Dip in U.S. adult-smoking rate
• Heart Attacks Drop 17% in Scotland After Smoking Ban
• Smoke-Free Policies Prove Effective
• Anti-smoking campaign targets low-income residents

Tags: Smoking, Smoking rates