[C-U Smokefree] More on St. Paul Minnesota Development of a Smoke Free Ordinance

[Theotskl at aol.com]

Hi there--

just to give you a little more sense of what is going on in St. Paul 
Minnesota because they seem to be at the same stage as the CU SmokeFree Alliance in 
terms of ordinance developments.

Cheers,

Theo

Theo Tsoukalas, Ph.D.

Source:  http://pulsetc.com/article.php?sid=1089
NEWSPAPER:  PULSE OF THE TWIN CITIES
SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA
Who is winning the Tobacco Wars?
By webmaster - Date: 2004-05-19 15:25:16

by Ed Felien

First there was the bill introduced in the State Legislature, then Dave 
Thune's ordinance in St. Paul, and, finally, a movement afoot in Minneapolis. 

Who's winning?

What's happening?
The ill conceived and hastily written bill introduced in the State 
Legislature earlier this year seemed more like political hotdogging than a serious 
attempt to extend the Minnesota Clean Air Act to include bars and restaurants. The 
bill did not include as sponsors some of the long time advocates of a 
non-smoking environment like Phyllis Kahn and Mike Paymar in the House or Senator 
Linda Berglin in the Senate. There was no serious attempt to get a hearing for the 
bill. On the one hand it didn't hurt the cause to raise its visibility, but 
on the other hand to have it dismissed so easily made the issue seem trivial 
and irrelevant.

It seemed at first that Dave Thune's introduction of an ordinance in St. Paul 
had the same Quixotic quality. Thune is a smoker and he represents a district 
that is heavily impacted by the smell of the Gopher Ethanol plant. People 
wondered, "Was he introducing the ordinance to seem like he was trying to do 
something about air pollution, since he hadn't had any luck closing down the 
ethanol plant?" But, then, something happened that gave the idea instant 
credibility. The idea had legs. People across St. Paul began taking up the cause-writing 
letters, speaking out and sending emails. Local anti-tobacco organizations 
that had seemed dormant and defensive, now took the offensive and began a 
lobbying campaign directed at undecided City Council members and Mayor Randy Kelly.

Then, across the River, City Council Member Gary Schiff introduced an 
ordinance that would do the same for Minneapolis. This was a critical development. 

There was no way one of the Twin Cities could pass the an ordinanace making 
it illegal to smoke in bars and restaurants without seeming to give an 
advantage to the establishments across the River that still allowed it. The only way 
it could possibly pass would be if both cities passed the ordinance 
simultaneously. This seemed impossibile, so no one took it seriously. Now, it seemed not 
only possible but inevitable.

Last year Hennepin Medical Society got a grant from the Minnesota Department 
of Health to begin an organizing drive in Minneapolis to try to pass a 
non-smoking ordinance similar to the one the American Lung Association had helped get 
passed in Duluth. They had begun recruiting members of a coalition to lobby 
the Minneapolis City Council. They held a couple of meetings to plan for active 
organizing in early fall, then, all of a sudden, events outpaced anticipation 
and planning. They hadn't even got their web site up or printed their 
stationery before Schiff's announcement caught them by surprise. They have quickly 
recovered and are organizing press conferences, a letters to the editor campaign 
and other outreach efforts.. 

What about the opposition? According to Jeanne Weigum of ANSRMinnesota, "The 
tobacco lobby, which was caught off guard, is now getting their act together 
and is ginning up their machine. Thune received 400 e-mails just yesterday 
[against his proposal]." Restaurant owners opposing the ban suddenly have reams of 
support materials professionally prepared. 

There are strong incentives for bars and restaurants to support the tobacco 
industry. When we studied the tobacco influence carefully a few years ago, we 
found that tobacco companies were willing to pay $10,000 a year to bars popular 
with young people just to be allowed to put some of their signs up on the 
walls. 

They give special carton rates to bars to feature their brand, and they come 
into the bars on a regular basis to give away cigarettes and gear. The tobacco 
industry knows that many young people begin smoking cigarettes for the first 
time when they go out to a bar to hear music and meet other young people. 
Young people want to be seen as daring and willing to take a chance, and they 
believe they'll live forever. Most of them believe they only smoke when they go 
out to bars, but many of them end up addicted for life.

We decided when we began Pulse seven years ago that we wouldn't take 
cigarette advertising. It was a bad drug and we'd seen too many friends die from it. 
We wondered how much money City Pages was making from cigarette advertising, 
and, in the two years we tracked it, we estimated they made a million dollars a 
year from cigarettes. The most insidious advertising were the newspaper bar 
ads sponsored by Camel or Marlboro. Bar owners didn't pay anything to get 
featured in expensive ads that promoted their upcoming shows. It was all part of the 
package.

Also part of the package was lobbying at the State Capitol. The hospitality 
industry lobbies for both liquor and tobacco, and the tab is picked up by the 
tobacco interests.

It was a no-brainer for bar owners: cash for posters in the bar, special 
discounts on cartons, free advertising and high-powered lobbyists at the State 
Capitol. What's not to like?

Then, a few years ago, California went non-smoking. It was a long and 
difficult battle. The tobacco industry fought it with tons of money and advertising, 
but bars and restaurants deserted the cause once class action lawsuits began 
on behalf of waitstaff and bartenders. The courts recognized that workers had a 
right to a safe work environment. Statistics proved that bartenders had a 
greater chance of lung disease than firefighters, quarry workers or miners. 
Damage awards could wipe out a bar or restaurant. The owners were forced to switch 
sides rather than face unlimited liability.

Soon after California, New York City went smoke-free, then Boston. It was 
happening all over, even Lexington, Kentucky went smoke-free. At this point, 
Minnesota seemed pretty far behind the curve.

Pulse of the Twin Cities doesn't pretend to be objective about this issue. As 
with most issues, we are nakedly partisan. We are also shameless activists. 
For the past four years we have sponsored Smoke Free Saturday Nights at some of 
the Twin Cities' more popular watering holes: Seventh Street, The 400, The 
Turf Club's Clown Lounge, Gluek's, Triple Rock and others. In the interest of 
full disclosure, we have received some subsidies from the Minnesota Partnership 
for Action Against Tobacco and the Minnesota Department of Health to cover up 
to half the costs of some of these promotions. Many of these promotions we 
have sponsored without financial subsidy.

Our enthusiasm for Smoke Free Saturday Nights often put bar owners and 
managers in a tough spot. Most of them genuinely wanted to do the right thing and 
not poison their customers, but they hated to send their regular customers out 
into the cold (and possibly across the street to another bar). Most of them 
seemed to feel that all bars would eventually be smoke free, but that didn't mean 
they wanted to be the first to drive their regulars out the door. Our events 
proved to them that there was life after smoking, that there was an audience 
that wanted to listen to music without breathing tobacco smoke. 

If you want to help pass the ordinances in St. Paul and Minneapolis call City 
Hall in your city, find the name of your Council Member. Call them up and 
tell them you support the ordinance to make bars and restaurants smoke free. Then 
call up the Mayor's office in your city. Randy Kelly in St. Paul and R. T. 
(Mr. Clean Jeans) Rybak are both sitting on the fence on this one. Call them up 
and tell them you expect leadership on an issue this critical to the health of 
young people. 

Your call can make a difference. We are close to victory. We need your help.

If you want to volunteer: in St. Paul call Jeanne Weigum at ANSRMN at 
651-646-3005 and in Minneapolis call Dan Kelly with Clean Air Minneapolis Campaign at 
651-999-5285 or check out their website.

Let's go after tobacco and kick their butts! 



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