Wednesday, February 03, 2010

Indiana House hypocrisy: No smoking = Workplace safety. Unless you work in a bar, club, casino ...

... then, your health really isn't that important, after all.

It's all about protecting workers, unless you have the misfortune of working in an exemption? If the empirical data is correct, then it's "all or nothing" -- or nothing at all.

House passes smoking ban that exempts bars, casinos, by Lesley Stedman Weidenbener (Courier-Journal)

INDIANAPOLIS — Smoking would be banned statewide in most restaurants and other workplaces under a bill the Indiana House passed 73-26 late Tuesday.
But House Bill 1131 exempts bars, private clubs, casinos and tobacco businesses. It also allows smoking in the private areas of small businesses in which all employees are family members ...


... As introduced by House Health Chairman Charlie Brown, D-Gary, the bill would have banned smoking in all public places — including bars, restaurants and retailers. Only casinos and horse tracks would have been exempted.

But last week and again on Monday, House members whittled away at the ban, carving new exemptions until it was a bill that Brown barely supported. Still, he asked House members to support it Tuesday, pledging that he'd be back to seek something more comprehensive. “If any one of you were to do a survey of your constituents, overwhelmingly they would support no smoking in the workplace, no smoking in public places.”

3 comments:

Daniel S said...

As a smoker, I am getting tired of the argument. Just go ahead and ban smoking in public buildings, we know it's just a matter of time. Most of us have trained ourselves not to smoke indoors already. That said I am opposed to what ius, floyd memorial and uk have done and eliminated smoking anywhere on their property. You have to give us somewhere to go. It may not be a big deal some places, but it's a long walk off campus at uk, which gets quite a bit of money from the tobacco industry.

The New Albanian said...

Agreed on the "who property" tag, especially as it applies to outdoors.

What's the matter with outdoors? I'm willing to take my cigar outside.

Christopher D said...

I had heard this going on while up there, but to be honest I didnt even bother tuning in.