News

Clean Air Metro KC Newsletter

August 2011

Grandview, MO to Go Smoke Free in 2012

Grandview, Missouri approved a smoke free ordinance on July 27th, 2011. The smoking restrictions in public places and workplaces take effect on January 1st, 2012. Five existing bars are exempted from the ordinance until August 1st, 2014.

Gambling with Lives: Air Quality at Area Casinos Found to be Unhealthy

Local Health Organizations Call for Total Smoking Ban in Area Casinos

Kansas City, MO. June 20^th, 2011 – Air quality testing in five area casinos found unhealthy levels of air due to secondhand smoke. The study released today by Clean Air Metro KC, Metropolitan Healthy Communities Coalition and the Healthcare Foundation of Greater Kansas City prompted the organizations to call for total smoking bans in area casinos.

Stan Cowan of the MU School of Medicine, University of Missouri Health System in Columbia, MO analyzed the air quality testing done in ten smoking and nonsmoking sections of five casinos in Kansas City, North Kansas City, Riverside and Kansas City, KS between June 10^th and October 3^rd, 2010. He noted that due solely to their occupational exposure, a full-time employee in a Kansas City area casino would be exposed to 106% the EPA’s average annual limit for particulate matter air pollution during an 8-hour work shift.

“It’s time to stop gambling with people’s lives,” said Norm Siegel, president of the HCF board of directors. We encourage our area city councils to recognize that the health of casino customers and employees is no less valuable than that of customers and employees in other workplaces and public places.”

Don Potts, MD of the Metropolitan Healthy Communities Coalition explained why the unhealthy rating is dangerous for casino employees and patrons. “The extremely small size of these particles not only allow them to be easily inhaled deep into the lungs aggravating conditions such as asthma and bronchitis, but also to pass into the bloodstream to increasing the risk for cardiovascular effects, including heart attack or stroke.”

Local smoking ordinances including the ones for Kansas City and North Kansas City currently prohibit smoking in public places and workplaces but allow smoking on casino floors until legislation requires gaming floors to be smokefree for all casinos in Clay, Jackson and Platte in Missouri and Kansas counties of Johnson and Wyandotte. Riverside has no smoking ordinance. 7^th Street Casino in Kansas City, KS is under the jurisdiction of the Wyandotte Nation, and a second casino, Hollywood Casino at the Speedway in Wyandotte County, is scheduled to open in 2012.

Teresa Price, a former Las Vegas casino dealer for 25 years told a gathering of health care advocates at the Healthcare Foundation’s office in Kansas City today, that she has lost colleagues who died from exposure to smoke on the casino floors. Price, who has been diagnosed with heart disease, became an advocate for smokefree casinos in Las Vegas and later was fired from her casino job in 2005. She now serves on the board of Smoke Free Gaming. Price has a message for Kansas City area casino employees. “No one deserves to lose their health in order to get a paycheck,” Price said.

The health concerns extend to patrons as well.A recently published national study on air quality in 66 smoking-allowed casinos found less than two hours exposure to secondhand smoke is enough to impair the heart’s ability to pump blood, placing susceptible casino patrons and workers at acute risk of heart disease.

With such evidence becoming more established and recognized by legislators, the National Council of Legislators from Gaming States passed a resolution in 2009 to support smokefree policies as a condition for issuing or renewing state gaming licenses.[i] Kansas is represented on this council and that state’s legislature considered but did not approve a bill in 2011 to remove the casino exemption for their state smokefree law. Missouri on the other hand is not a member of this council and a bill for a state law for smokefree workplaces and public places was not reported out of committee this past session. Currently, 18 states have laws requiring non-tribal casinos to be smokefree.

Other highlights from the report:

Separate smoking and non-smoking sections did not prevent pollutants in the smoking sections from contaminating the air in the non-smoking sections.
On average, only 16.8% of people were actively smoking in the locations where smoking was permitted. This is one-fourth lower than the adult smoking prevalence of 22.4% for urban Jackson County, and refutes the commonly held misperception that a higher percent of casino customers or employees smoke.

The full report can be found on the Resources page of this Web site.

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Clean Air Metro KC Newsletter - June 2011

Johnson County Community College goes smoke free
Parkville Expands Local Smoking Ordinance

CLEAN AIR METRO KC APRIL 2011 NEWSLETTER

including information on: New Casino Report Shows SHS Danger to Workers and KCK Community Colleges Go Smokefree

SMOKEFREE AIR AWARD

APRIL 8TH, 2011

Lorie Snyder of Tobacco Free Missouri accepts Smokefree Award from ANR

Congratulations to the smokefree community advocates who accepted the ANR Smokefree Air Challenge award.Americans for Non Smokers Rights announced that Missouri came in second nationally among states passing the most smokefree ordinances in the past year. Representatives from Jefferson City, Kansas City, Columbia, Marysville, Liberty, Tobacco Free Missouri, Missouri Department of Health and other tobacco control organizations accepted the award at a breakfast celebration held in Liberty, Missouri.

Smoke Free News

Jan 21, 2011

TWO NEW STUDIES SHOW SMOKE FREE POLICIES BENEFIT EMPLOYEES, PATRONS AND BUSINESSES

KANSAS CITY, MO – The Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City (HCF) has funded two new studies on the economic impact and air quality of regional smoke free policies that conclusively show that these policies are good for business and good for people.

Research Examines Economic Impact of 2008 Kansas City, MO Smoke Free Ordinance
A recent study funded by HCF determines that there was no negative effect on sales or employment following the adoption of the 2008 smoking ban. The research was conducted by John A. Tauras, Ph.D. and Frank J. Chaloupka, Ph.D., of the University of Illinois-Chicago who have authored similar studies on smoking bans throughout the county.

Data from the study was provided by the Missouri and Kansas Departments of Revenue. Specifically, the researchers used monthly taxable sales in restaurants and bars for cities throughout Kansas and Missouri with populations of 25,000 or more for the period of July 2000 through March 2010. The data showed no difference before and after the implementation of the Kansas City, MO comprehensive smoke-free policy.

“As expected, we find that taxable sales in restaurants and bars are strongly, positively related to overall economic conditions, with sales rising as overall economic activity increases and vice versa,” said Dr. Chaloupka.

The researchers also determined that other local smoke-free policies in Kansas and Missouri have had no negative impact on eating and drinking establishments.

“The Health Care Foundation is dedicated to protecting our community from the harmful effects of second hand smoke,” said HCF Board Chair Norman Siegel. “This study adds to a large and growing body of evidence throughout the country that counter the tobacco and hospitality industry’s claims that smoke-free policies will result in negative economic impact on bars and restaurants. It is our hope that through research such as this, our elected leaders will see the wisdom in adopting such policies to protect all communities in the HCF service area.”

Kansas City, Missouri voters approved a ballot initiative in April 2008 that requires private workplaces, restaurants and bars to be smoke-free. As of October 2010, 23 states and 430 localities have adopted similar ordinances, providing nearly half of the country’s population with protection from second-hand smoke.

Air Quality Testing Confirms Need for Secondhand Smoke Protections

A new sampling of air quality in metropolitan area bars and restaurants showed mixed results in the rates of indoor air particle pollution from smoking. Air quality levels improved dramatically in Kansas City, Kansas since the enactment of the Kansas statewide public smoking law, while dangerous levels of indoor air quality was reported in two Missouri suburban communities with weak or nonexistent public smoking policies.

Indoor air quality was sampled in 22 bars and restaurants in Kansas City, KS, Blue Springs and Raytown, MO in 2010. The study analysis was conducted by nationally recognized air quality researcher Mark Travers, PhD, MS of the Roswell Park Cancer Institute.

The results of Kansas City, KS testing also were combined with air quality testing in bars and restaurants in six other Kansas communities. The statewide report confirms that customers and employees in Kansas City, KS and all areas of Kansas are protected now from the dangers of second hand smoke in public places.

“The results are very clear,” said Ken Davis, Vice President of Tobacco Free Kansas Coalition. “This report shows the Kansas smoke free law is working in Kansas City, KS. Air quality levels in restaurants and bars there dropped 89% from unhealthy levels to good levels after the statewide smoking law went into effect last July. It is having a positive health impact for workers and patrons.”

According to the report, air sampling in 17 restaurants and bars in Blue Springs and Raytown showed hazardous levels of air pollution from smoking that was between five and eight times higher than what is considered safe by the EPA.

“The Missouri air quality testing results showed room for continuing improvement in those metropolitan communities with weak or no restrictions on public smoking,” Davis said.

In the study, trained staff used portable electronic monitors to make precise measurements of toxic airborne particles. The majority of testing was done on weekends when restaurants and bars were most likely to be busy. The reports concludes that comprehensive smoke free policies that prohibits indoor smoking in all indoor places is the only proven means to eliminate this exposure to toxic tobacco smoke pollution.

Background:

Currently the Blue Springs smoking ordinance exempts bars, pool halls, bowling alleys and private clubs. Raytown has not yet approved protections from second hand smoke in public places. According to Davis, five metropolitan Missouri communities have comprehensive smoke free policies including KCMO, Independence, Lee’s Summit, North Kansas City and Liberty. Five additional communities have weak ordinances including Parkville, Raymore, Belton, Blue Springs and Gladstone. Four communities lack smoke free ordinances including Grandview, Smithville, Raytown and Riverside.

Executive summaries from both studies can be found on HCF’s website – www.healthcare4kc.org.

July 6, 2010

Clean Indoor Air Celebration!

On Thursday July 1, 2010 local advocates and legislative champions gathered for a celebration of the new Kansas Clean Indoor Air Act. The celebration took place at Johnny's Tavern in Olathe, in attendance were local citizens, community advocates and multiple state legislators.

June 16, 2010

Kansas Smoke Free Law Takes Effect July 1

Business Tool Kits Available for Implementation

Overland Park, KS. June 16, 2010: Statewide smoking restrictions in Kansas go into effect July 1, 2010 covering restaurants, bars, public places and some private clubs. The new law will spread protections from second hand smoke to metropolitan communities such as Merriam, DeSoto, Gardner and Edwardsville that are not covered by local smoking ordinances. The Kansas Clean Indoor Air Act will improve protections in Kansas City, Kansas and Shawnee that previously enacted weaker ordinances. Smoking ordinances in communities that are stronger than state law can remain in effect. This would include communities such as Overland Park, Lenexa, Mission and others.

The new Kansas law prohibits smoking indoors in public places, restaurants, bars, some private clubs and within 10 feet of any doorway, open window or air intake. The act was passed by the Kansas House of Representatives last February and signed into law by Governor Mark Parkinson.

Throughout the state clean indoor air advocates and supporters will begin to celebrate this historic public health bill. In the Kansas City area, supporters will hold a reception on July 1^st at Johnny’s Tavern in Olathe from 5:30 to 7:30pm.(10384 S. Ridgeview Road, Olathe.(K-10 and Ridgeview) Local advocates will be recognized for their work on local ordinances in the metro area that helped create momentum for a statewide law. State lawmakers who voted in support of the new law also will be included.

“The move from local smoking ordinances to a statewide law was the most amazing grassroots effort I’ve ever witnessed,” said Joyce Morrison of Clean Air Kansas City. “The creation of the statewide law did not start with leadership at the top. It started with local residents telling their elected officials that they wanted protections from second hand smoke in public places and workplaces and the tobacco industry fought us every step of the way."

Clean Air Kansas City is a diverse coalition of health care, businesses and individuals formed in 2005 with funding from the Healthcare Foundation of Greater Kansas City and the Metropolitan Healthy Communities Coalition to support the grassroots initiatives that contributed to the to the passage of 22 local smoke free ordinances in the metro. www.cleanairkc.com. The model for Clean Air Kansas City later became the basis for the Clean Air Kansas campaign that focused on approval of the statewide law.

BUSINESS TOOL KIT

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment put together a tool kit for businesses with information on the implementation of the new law. The kit contains a link to download or print signage for businesses; sample written smoking policies; instructions on enforcement of the law; information on fines for owner/operators and smokers; a list of the locations exempt from the new law and a Class A & B club exemption form.

The business tool kit is available at no cost from the Johnson County Health Department. Call (913) 477-8384 to obtain a kit.

For more information about the Kansas Clean Indoor Air Act send an email to: kssmokefree@kdheks.gov or call 1-877-416-8547 or go to the Web site, www.KSsmokefree.org.

May 3, 2010

Lt. Governor Findley, State Agencies and Partner Organizations Announce Indoor Clean Air Act Web Site

Lt. Governor Troy Findley, the Kansas Department of health and Environment (KDHE) along with state agencies and partner organizations unvieled a new web site, www.KSsmokefree.org, which will assist businesses with implementation of the Indoor Clean Air Act and provide educational resources for the public.

House Bill 2221, the Kansas 2010 Indoor Clean Air Act was signed into law by Governor Mark Parkinson on march 21. It will take effect July 1. This law prohibits smoking in most enclosed public places, workplaces, taxis, limosines, restaurants, bars, and within 10 feet from entrances and air intakes of such facilities statewide.

This web site provides downloadable no smoke signs for businesses, frequently asked questions, a business toolkit and free resources to help people quit tobacco use through the Kansas Tobacco Quitline (800-QUIT-NOW).

"By working together to implement this law, we can make our state a safer, healthier place for all Kansans," said Roderick Bremby, KDHE Secretary. "We hope the web site, www.KSsmokefree.org, will health businesses make a smooth transition to a smoke-free Kansas."

Kansas is the 35th state to pass a statewide law to provide smoke-free workplaces, restaurants or bars.

Mar. 17, 2010

Kansas Goes Smoke Free

Kansas Governor Mark Parkinson was at the KU Med School of Nursing on Monday Mar. 15, 2010 for the ceremonial signing of The Kansas Clean Indoor Air Act.