Secondhand smoke is the third-leading cause of preventable death in Story County after primary smoking and alcohol use.

This was the topic of discussion at Monday’s town hall meeting in Nevada.

Clean Air For Everyone Iowa Citizen Action Network, or C.A.F.E. Iowa CAN, held the event at the Nevada Middle School in an effort to educate Story County residents about the effects of secondhand smoke and encourage them to become a smoke-free community.

“We feel like our prevention efforts are working when it comes to young people,” said Julie Hibben, community youth development specialist for Youth and Shelter Services of Story County.

According to the 2004 Story County Health and Quality of Life Assessment study, those surveyed indicated that 26.7 percent of people in eastern Story County are smokers. This compares to 22.1 percent of all Iowans and 20.9 percent nationally, according to the study.

Speakers said they wanted to stop smoking completely, but they realized making a statewide ban would not be feasible yet.

“Of course we want people to stop smoking,” Hibben said.

But right now, Hibben said, those in the group are working toward making homes and vehicles smoke free.

Threase Harms-Hassoun, program director for the division of tobacco use prevention and control for the Iowa Department of Public Health, said they are trying to “create an atmosphere where smoking is not desirable.”

“If we are successful in passing smoke-free policies, then [tobacco companies] lose ground,” Harms-Hassoun said. “Consumption rates go down.”

David Carlyle, family practice physician for the McFarland Clinic, said 50,000 Americans die from secondhand smoke annually, 500 of which are from Iowa.

State Sen. Herman Quirmbach, D-Ames, who attended the meeting, said he was glad to see the group doing anti-smoking efforts.Quirmbach served on the Ames City Council in 2001 when they passed a non-smoking ordinance.

He said the 2001 ordinance was a compromise between restaurants and bars that pulled in more than 10 percent in food revenues to prohibit smoking before 8:30 p.m., and that it was widely supported.

Not a single citation was written during the 20 months it was in effect before the Iowa Supreme Court overturned it, Quirmbach said.

“In fact, the community is still embracing it,” he said.

He said even though the ordinance is no longer in effect, 95 percent of the bars and restaurants still continue to abide by it. The Ames community wants to have control, he said.

“That’s why we passed an ordinance a couple years ago,” he said.

C.A.F.E. Iowa CAN plans to hold more forums.