Smokefree law touted for cultural shift

DES MOINES – Iowa's anti-tobacco efforts have ushered in a major cultural change that has reduced the number of adult smokers and made workplaces healthier places, backers of Iowa's indoor smoking ban said Wednesday.

“This is probably one of the biggest cultural shifts in a short amount of time that our state will ever see,” said Rep. Janet Petersen, D-Des Moines, who helped enact the smokefree air act which took effect one year ago on July 1, 2008.

Advocates said the restriction covering virtually all public places – except casino gambling areas, the Iowa State Fairgrounds and the Iowa Veterans Home in Marshalltown – and state and federal cigarette tax increases have helped drop smoking among Iowa adults to 14 percent compared to 19 percent two years earlier.

State Attorney General Tom Miller said Iowa has jumped into the top five states nationally in terms of smoking compliance. He noted that in the 1960s about four out of every 10 Iowa adults smoked tobacco products.

“We've really turned a corner,” he told a Statehouse news conference.

Jeff Bruning, who owns several bar/restaurants in the Des Moines area, conceded some businesses in smaller towns or economically depressed parts of Iowa have been adversely affected by the law change for a time. But he said “I believe the state is better off,” and the new law has helped expand clientele to families and the 86 percent of Iowans who are nonsmokers.

Petersen said there remains interest in removing the exemptions to the smokefree workplace law but she believed it would be 2011 before any legislative push was made to allow for an adequate transition period. She did not think the Legislature would revisit other issues, such as allowing smoking in outdoor patios at certain establishments currently covered by the ban.

Miller said Iowans increasingly realize that tobacco “is a very dangerous product” but he doubted there would be a concerted effort to ban tobacco entirely.

“We tried prohibition in the ‘20s and found out it didn't work,” he said. “It's not possible to do it.”