ELLIS' DATA
Ellis presented supportive data at this month's Newberry City Council meeting on what he says is a nationwide trend prohibiting workplace smoking.
Many bans came after the Surgeon General's 2006 report on secondhand smoke called, “The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke.”
The report found that even top-of-the-line ventilation systems “cannot be relied on to completely control health risks from secondhand smoke exposure.”
“The scientific evidence is now indisputable: secondhand smoke is not a mere annoyance,” Surgeon General Richard Carmona said. “It is a serious health hazard that can lead to disease and premature death in children and nonsmoking adults.”
But even before the 2006 report, sentiment against secondhand smoke was stirring as Ellis witnessed at Charleston's public hearing on a workplace smoking ban in 2003.
“Then it was so much bickering back and forth about for and against, and now it's not even a question,“ Ellis said.
“It was already known that secondhand smoke wasn't good for you, but the facts weren't in yet. There wasn't clear, unbiased research data to back all that up. Then the Surgeon General's report came out and it was overwhelming at that point,” he said.
Just this week the state's Supreme Court upheld a smoking ban on Sullivan's Island, although it did say that heavy fines and jail time were not allowed for violators.
A highlight sheet from the report says secondhand smoke “contains many chemicals that can quickly irritate and damage the lining of the airways.”
“Even brief exposure can trigger respiratory symptoms, including cough, phlegm, wheezing and breathlessness,” and people with asthma or other respiratory conditions...should “take special precautions to avoid secondhand smoke exposure,” the report states.
Ellis hopes council members will parlay his presentation into a citywide workplace smoking ban through a new city ordinance.
ELSEWHERE
In South Carolina 19 municipalities have adopted smoke-free workplace bans, and across the nation, Ellis says there are thousands of similar restrictions.
“I would say the Southeast is kind of on the tail end of that wave,” Ellis said. “It's going to happen sooner or later.”
Dan Carrigan, executive director of Smoke-Free Action, a help source to municipalities administering such bans, says ordinances throughout the state vary on the specific distance a smoker must be away from the property.
Some ordinances do not state a required distance, but he says the understanding is that a person must be at least far enough away so their smoke draft cannot go back inside the building.
In all instances, Carrigan says the common thread is providing clean air indoors at public places including restaurants, bars and private clubs.
Only in rare exceptions have smoke allowances been made for private nonprofit clubs such as an American Legion building.
Cities like Greenville have even extended the ban outdoors to cover patios attached to a restaurant or club.
And Carrigan says people have been compliant with the rules.
“Enforcement has not been a problem,” he said.
Aside from the health improvement of those who could benefit from a smoke-free workplace, Ellis is specific about having safe air for employees who work in smoking establishments, particularly bartenders, wait staff and musicians who do not have a choice, he said.
“This is to provide a safe, clean working environment for people that chose to be bartenders, people that chose to be musicians, waiters, waitresses. It's also for patrons, but that's more their choice (of where to eat),” Ellis said.
EFFECTS ON RESTAURANTS
One common rebuttal to a smoking ban is profit loss. Ellis presented data showing a workplace smoking ban does not crimp bar and restaurant revenue.
One instance in Ellis' papers is backed by the American Journal of Public Health's study, “The Effect of Ordinances Requiring Smokefree Restaurants on Restaurant Sales,” and Consumer Reports' 1994 release, “The 30 Percent Myth,” showing a ban's effect on business in Beverly Hills and Bellflower, Calif.
The cities repealed their smokefree restaurant ordinances, but studies showed “there was no detectable drop in restaurant sales during the time the ordinances were in effect, nor was there an increase in restaurant sales following reversal of the 100 percent smokefree ordinances,” the report from Americans for Nonsmokers' rights reads.
Thirteen other states are similarly listed beside the California case.
“We've got studies to show that (revenue is not hurt by a ban,)” Ellis said. “And there are also studies sponsored by tobacco companies to show that there are (revenue damages).”
Lee Kitchens, senior manager for The Palms Grill & Bar in Newberry, is in favor of a workplace smoking ban, though he himself is a smoker.
The Palms' smoking section is not enclosed from the rest of the restaurant and Kitchens suspects the ban could increase business.
“We have people all the time complaining about the cigarette smoke,” Kitchens said, adding that at first, some might be upset with the ban, “but in the long run, it doesn't really affect anyone's business.”
“From everywhere else that's done it in the past, the pros outweigh the cons,” he said.
“You might have some people who might not sit at the bar because they can't smoke a cigarette and drink, but we'll have more families who don't want to go out to eat to certain places because of cigarette smoke.“
Concerning certain outdoor smoking bans like Greenville's that adresses attached bar patios, Kitchens said that would push the case too far.
“I think you should at least be able to go outside if there is an attached patio,” he said. “I've gone to a couple different restaurants and bars in northern California and they have it posted (as a) smoking patio, so you're aware that if you are sitting in that area people will be smoking.
“As far as having it to where you can't even go out on the patio and smoke, that's a little too much,” Kitchens said.
THE LOCALS
Jamaal Holley of Newberry is a smoker who chooses not to smoke even in restaurants where smoking is allowed.
He said he was in favor of a workplace smoking ban while lighting a cigarette outside after finishing dinner at La Fogata, which has a smoking section.
“I agree with it because everyone doesn't like to be around smoke so I come outside before I smoke,” Holley said, exhaling away from his non-smoking friend. “Smoke travels. The ban would be good because some folks have asthma.”
Newberry resident David Greenslade is one of those folks with asthma who is interested in a workplace smoking ban.
Greenslade attended Ellis' council meeting presentation and he says he cannot eat in restaurants where smoking is allowed.
“I think it would be good for Newberry,” Greenslade said of the ban.
“The first thing I do is ask (a restaurant) if they have smoking, and if they do, then I say ‘I'm sorry, I'll go to another restaurant,' and I do that all the time because we eat out a lot.”
THE MOTIVE
Ellis, a Florence native and current Medical University of South Carolina student, honed his “passion” for the smoke ban under Newberry County's well-known anti-smoking advocate, Dr. Oscar Lovelace.
Also, Ellis' three-week rotation with a head and neck cancer team lent momentum.
“When they have these surgeries to take the cancer out, they usually disfigure the person's face,” said Ellis.
“They have to take skin from their leg and make a tongue. I mean, these people are not the same anymore and it's because of smoking most of the time,” he said. “Its images you'll never forget.”
However, Ellis says for him the issue boils down to being responsible.
“For me to be a future healthcare provider in the U.S. and not address the most preventable cause of premature death in America,” Ellis said, “I think I would not be doing my job.”
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