October 2, 2007
Support Growing for Clean Indoor Air Act
As Montana marks the second anniversary of its Clean Indoor Air Act this month, support for the measure continues to grow, according to the state Department of Public Health and Human Services (DPHHS).
In a recent survey of 2,437 Montanans, more than two thirds (67 percent) said they support full implementation of the Clean Indoor Air Act, including a ban on smoking in bars and casinos. That’s up from 62 percent in 2005, department officials said.
“The Legislature recognized the right of nonsmokers to breathe smoke-free air in the name of protecting public health,” said Linda Lee, section supervisor for the Montana Tobacco Use Prevention Program at DPHHS. “Lawmakers clearly believed that the need to breathe smoke-free air should take priority over the desire to smoke.”
Across the state, the right to breathe smoke-free air is being increasingly honored, Lee said. For example, nearly half of Montana counties have smoke-free bars or casinos, even though the law gives those establishments until October 2009 to eliminate smoking.
A survey conducted by the Tobacco Use Prevention Program found that a quarter of Montana counties have medical facilities where the entire grounds are smoke-free – not just indoors as the law requires. Many have eliminated spit tobacco as well. And a fifth of Montana counties have smoke-free hotels.
Montana students. A statewide survey found that 56 percent of students in middle and high school – when asked whether they had been with someone who smoked in the past 30 days – responded that they had.
Others who continue to be exposed to the health risks associated with tobacco smoke are bartenders and musicians who work in bars and casinos where smoking is still allowed, people who work on outdoor job sites where smoking is permitted, those who live in multi-unit housing where smoking is permitted in individual apartments, and even some Montanans whose employers have failed to enforce the law, Lee said.
“As Montana citizens learn more about the health risks associated with exposure to secondhand smoke, I think we’ll see more compliance with the state law as well as voluntary secondhand smoke policies,” Lee said.
“Secondhand smoke is a killer,” she added. “Right here in Helena, an innovative study confirmed that a local smoke-free ordinance helped to reduce heart attacks by 40 percent over a six-month period.”
That study, which was published in the British Medical Journal in 2004, has since been replicated five times, twice in the United States as well as in Scotland, Ireland and Italy, she noted.
The U.S. Surgeon General concluded in 2006 that there is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke, and the World Health Organization announced the same conclusion earlier this year. Secondhand smoke contains more than 250 toxic chemicals that can cause lung cancer, heart disease, stroke, and other fatal ailments.
Secondhand smoke exposure has also been linked to SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome), as well as to breast cancer in young women.
“We know that nearly two thirds of Montana smokers want to quit, as do almost half of the men who use spit tobacco,” Lee said. Those who use cessation services like the Montana Tobacco Quit Line are significantly more likely to succeed, she added.
The Tobacco Quit Line is a free service of DPHHS. Montanans who call the toll-free hotline at 866-485-QUIT (485-7848) can get personalized guidance from quit specialists and free nicotine replacement therapy.
