I think that Ames residents should be reminded how powerful the tobacco industry is and how strong its efforts are to defeat ordinances such as ours. I ask that you call and write the six business owners who have been recruited by Philip Morris to defeat Iowa’s first tobacco ordinance and ask them to withdraw from the lawsuit.

I am currently in the process of completing a research project for my graduate class at the University of Iowa. My group will be evaluating the attitudes of Ames residents about the ordinance. Our hypothesis states that we believe Ames residents are neutral or supportive of the ordinance.

In completing our literature review, I have found numerous abstracts and articles stating the damaging effects of environmental tobacco smoke not only to customers but to employees as well. The business owners are not only overlooking the health impact on customers but overlooking the health impact on their own employees.

A research study completed by Eisner, Smith and Blanc (1998) stated that following statewide legislation mandating smoke-free bars and taverns, bartenders reported a substantial reduction in workplace ETS exposure. The prevalence of respiratory and sensory irritation symptoms, which initially affected the majority of bartenders, declined markedly after the smoking ban.

According to research by Laranjeira and Dunn (2000), waiters had over double the carbon monoxide levels after working a nine-hour shift when compared to medical students who had not been exposed to any nicotine. The research concluded that exposure to environmental tobacco smoke is the most likely explanation for the increase in carbon monoxide levels among these non-smoking waiters.

In an article written by Stanton Glantz, PhD., “There is no evidence from so many cities of varying location, size and demographics that the question of whether clean indoor air ordinances affect restaurant revenues – adversely or otherwise – should be considered closed. Local officials can go about their business of protecting the public from the toxins in secondhand smoke without worrying about this phony issue.”

New research consistently discusses how the tobacco industry jeopardizes facts and works very hard to change opinions and rally against not only the passage, but the continuation of ordinances throughout the country. Glasgow (1997) reported “If all workplaces in the United States were smoke-free, an additional 178,000 smokers would stop smoking, and, among those who continued to smoke, they would consume 10 billion fewer cigarettes per year. There is simply no other tobacco control intervention that can contribute this much to public health this quickly – for nonsmokers and people who would like to quit – as creating smoke-free environments.”

Jody Kammin

Ames