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Action on Smoking and Health
A National Legal-Action Antismoking Organization Entirely Supported by Tax-Deductible Contributions
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Juneau Debates Smoking Ban [12/08-2]
Excerpts from: Bar owners, anti-smoking advocates debate ordinance
By TARA SIDOR JUNEAU EMPIRE [12/07/03]
The Juneau Clean Air Coalition is lobbying to ban smoking in all bars and bar/restaurants in Juneau, but the food and beverage industry is fighting back.
The two sides squared off Friday at a Juneau Chamber of Commerce luncheon. The debate marked the beginning of what is expected to be a hard-fought battle over changing the city's clean-indoor-air ordinance.
The current ordinance, which took effect Jan. 1, 2002, bans smoking in most places, but stand-alone bars and some bar/restaurants are exempt. The coalition wants smoking in all public and work places banned.
But second-hand smoking in some venues affects the health of children, said Cindy Spanyers, president of Alaskans for Tobacco Free Kids. The local bowling alley allows smoking in its bar while children bowl nearby. And cigarette smoke from Hangar on the Wharf filters out into an indoor hallway near children, she said.
Cahill said other cities that banned smoking experienced no or minimal financial effects. A smoking ban in Juneau will put all bars and bar/restaurants on a level playing field while protecting workers' health, she argued.
Laura Achée of Juneau was one of those workers who hated being exposed to second-hand smoke when she worked as a server in Anchorage, she said. In the early 1990s, Achée and her colleagues starting feeling the ill-effects of second-hand smoke, but couldn't work at another restaurant because Anchorage had not banned smoking at that time.
The Smoking Ordinance Review Task Force is planning to meet Jan. 8 to review the ordinance and make recommendations to the Juneau Assembly at a later date, Chairman Matt Felix said. The task force does not plan to take a position on banning smoking in bars and bar/restaurants, he said.The coalition and Alaskans for Tobacco Free Kids will announce plans on their anti-smoking lobbying effort at 10 a.m. Monday in Chinook's at the Goldbelt Hotel, 51 Egan Drive.
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