Published: June 21, 2008 12:00 am      

Smoking ban fight to go national

CLINTON — Those fighting to overturn the smoking ban in Iowa are looking to band together with groups from other states and take the fight all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Legislature passed the smoking ban last session, which prohibits smoking in most public places. The ban affects restaurants and bars but provides exemptions for gambling areas of casinos and the Iowa Veterans Home at Marshalltown.

In April, the Clinton Organized Bar and Restaurant Association announced plans to join forces with other bar and restaurant associations and establishments across the state of Iowa to file an injunction against the smoking ban. But, after learning that the act includes a clause preventing any injunction from stopping the law from going into effect, the group began investigating other avenues to pursue.

During a recent meeting of the Clinton Organized Bar and Restaurant Association, COBRA President Jon Van Roekel noted that he and COBRA member Gary Sawyer met with “key players” on June 11 in Grinnell. Van Roekel said several states are actively fighting the ban, but said some are “coming to a wall.” He said COBRA officials have decided to forgo attempting to gain a level playing field at the state level and intend to create a unified front against smoking bans by taking the fight nationwide and declaring the matter a personal property rights issue.

Van Roekel said COBRA members have contacted representatives of groups involved in a smoking ban fight in nine states and have 11 more states to contact. He said that so far, all those contacted are “on board” with making the smoking ban fight a national issue. Van Roekel said the key objective is to band with groups from other states to pool experience and information, as well as resources and funding, because it will cost millions of dollars to take the issue to the U.S. Supreme Court. He pointed out that the Supreme Court has issued previous rulings siding with property owners regarding personal property issues.

“They cannot tell you what you can and cannot do with your own personal property within reason,” Van Roekel said.

Van Roekel added that the Iowa smoking ban could be overturned by another legislative vote. He said if four seats in the Iowa House of Representatives can be overturned, or if incumbent Democrats could be unseated by Republican challengers, a legislator could reintroduce the issue and a new vote potentially could overturn the ban.

Van Roekel noted that currently, studies have not shown a positive link between secondhand smoke exposure and cancer in a work-related environment.

He said that if information attesting to that can be introduced in a court of law, it would remove the foundation of the smoking ban argument and the ban would be overturned. He stated that the only information legislators considered in ruling on the ban was from groups in support of the ban and remarked that Sen. Roger Stewart refused to present opposing information. Van Roekel said some Democrats who based their decision on information that was incorrect, are now seeing negative personal impacts from their vote.

He advised the group that the Health Department is sending information about the ban via e-mail, informing bar and restaurant owners of their responsibilities regarding the ban. He said the regulation stipulates that if an owner or staff sees someone smoking illegally, they “should” ask them to stop. If the person continues, Van Roekel said, the person “may” ask the smoker to leave the building and “may” stop serving them. He said if the smoker continues to refuse, the person “may” call police.

According to the draft administrative rules intended to supplement implementation of the law from the Iowa Department of Public Health, the primary goal of the IDPH is to promote compliance once the law becomes effective by educating the public and business owners about the Smokefree Air Act. Clinton Police Chief Brian Guy said no intergovernmental agreements have been reached to get local law enforcement agencies involved in pursuing violations of the smoking ban as of yet. He said if the Clinton Police Department receives telephone calls regarding smoking ban violations, complaintants will be directed to call the Iowa Smokefree Act Helpline.