Indiana Smoke Free Air Law enacted two years ago has made air cleaner for many

According to the Indiana State Department of Health, the intention behind the Indiana Smoke Free Air Law was to protect Hoosiers from the harmful effects of exposure to secondhand smoke, which contains more than 4,000 substances, including 200 known poisons and 43 cancer-causing agents.

For just more than two years now, smoking has been prohibited in most places of employment, most public places, restaurants, within eight feet of a public entrance to a public place or a place of employment and any vehicle owned, leased or operated by the state if the vehicle is used for a government function.

Smoking, however, is still permitted in bars, taverns, tobacco retails shops, cigar bars, hookah bars, state-licensed gaming facilities, licensed horse track facilities and membership clubs.

However, fraternal, veteran and other membership clubs can allow smoking only if they are classified as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, are established as a club or fraternity under the law, provide food and alcoholic beverages to only its members and their guests, vote every two years to allow smoking by its members during business meetings and provide a separate, enclosed designated smoking room that is ventilated and only allow individuals 18 years and older to enter.

A study conducted by Mark Krahling, a professor at the University of Southern Indiana, shows that in Indiana, since the implementation of the law, the level of fine particles in indoor air has dropped 85 percent. Fine particles are released from burning cigarettes, are easily inhaled deeply into the lungs and cause a variety of adverse effects, including cardiovascular and respiratory morbidity and death, according to Dan Gray, director of the Wabash County Tobacco Free Coalition.

Krahling’s study used state-of-the-art monitors that test fine particle air pollution, only those that are 2.5 microns in diameter or smaller, in 33 Hoosier bars and restaurants. A micron, or micrometer, is one-millionth of a meter. Each of the 33 locations were tested before and after the law’s implementation.

Before that date, the average level of indoor air pollution in Indiana hospitality venues that allowed smoking was 64 micrograms per cubic meter. The levels afterward decreased to 11 micrograms per cubic meter, just below that of the 2012 state average level of outdoor air determined by the Environmental Protection Agency.

“What we see in this study is that, before the law, restaurant and bar workers in Indiana were exposed to harmful levels of secondhand smoke,” Krahling said in a news release from the Coalition. “With the enactment of the statewide law, air quality has significantly improved in the venues that are now smoke-free, which will protect the health of both workers and patrons.

“However, bar workers remain unprotected from secondhand smoke.”

Gray sees the study as another leg for the argument against public tobacco use.

“This study reinforces what we known to be true: Smoking is a source of indoor air pollution and the state’s smoke-free air law works to make most work places safer for everyone to breathe, however, not all employees are protected by the state law,” Gray added.

“Now, Wabash County needs to focus on passing a fair, local law for all workers and businesses. Smoke-free air is good for the health of our community residents and the health of our economy.”

Gray reported to the Plain Dealer that he believes an ideal local law would be one that is a comprehensive ordinance that would make all public buildings smoke-free, including bars and private clubs. In Indiana, there are 20 communities, such as Bloomington, Indianapolis, Terre Haute and Fort Wayne, that have passed comprehensive local smoke-free air ordinances that cover all workplaces, including bars. These ordinances cover approximately 30 percent of Hoosiers.

He thinks such a law would be advantageous for a lot of people, entrepreneurs, patrons and employees alike.

“Many bar workers don’t have health insurance or paid sick time,” Gray said. “If they get sick, they not only lose part of their paycheck, but they end up putting out more in health care costs or avoid treatment because they can’t afford it.

“This study shows that we have a way to help prevent illness by eliminating exposure to secondhand smoke, in turn helping limit future health costs for workers.”

Although the law is vast, Gray doesn’t see it as encompassing.

“The current law only protects some of the residents in Wabash County,” Gray said. “Those who are employed, who do not have a choice to work in a cleaner environment, are sacrificing their health to provide for their families.

“I often hear that those who do not want to be exposed can find a different job. That is always easier said than done. Jobs are not that plentiful.”

Currently, according to County Health Rankings and Roadmaps, a collaboration between the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, Wabash County ranks 61st out of Indiana’s 92 counties in terms of “Health Outcomes,” which uses two measurements: how long people live and how healthy people feel while alive.

“We know that tobacco use is the No. 1 cause of preventable diseases and death,” Gray said. “That includes exposure to secondhand smoke. There are an estimated 9,800 Hoosiers who die per year from their use of tobacco. From those who die from tobacco use, 1,200 non-tobacco Hoosiers die annually from secondhand smoke exposure

“The issue about limiting secondhand smoke has nothing to do with individuals’ right. It has everything to do with personal and public health.”

Bernardo Ugalde, part-owner and general manager of Ugalde’s Wabash location, has seen his business, separated into a bar and restaurant, affected by the law, but ultimately for the better.

“The restaurant wasn’t really affected negatively by it,” Ugalde said of the state’s smoke-free air law. “But it was a good thing. It’s our sales. They actually increased. Most of the smokers used to go in the bar. Now, they don’t go here anymore.

“We went completely non-smoking because the bar is in the same building as the restaurant. The bar lost about 20 percent of its sales, but the restaurant increased about 10 percent in the past couple of years in sales. The restaurant, however, does better sales than the bar. So it increased more than it lost.”

Gray and the Coalition work with dozens of community partners, including the county’s three school districts, the Wabash County YMCA, the Honeywell Center, the Wabash County Health Board and more, to keep local airs as smoke-free as possible.

Just as Gray works locally with agencies and organizations to collaborate against public tobacco use, he believes the next big thing in the effort involves the big picture with tobacco.

“We must address the economic and health consequences of tobacco use in order to be competitive in today’s marketplace for businesses and workers,” Gray said. “A 2013 American Journal of Public Health article concluded that states can significantly reduce youth smoking by implementing well-funded tobacco prevention programs, increasing the price of cigarettes through higher taxes and enacting stronger smoke-free air laws. The study found that a doubling of cigarette prices would reduce current youth smoking by 13 percent.

“It is critical to fund tobacco prevention programs to keep kids from smoking because the tobacco companies spend $271 million each year on marketing and promotion in Indiana, much of which influences kids to smoke.”

According to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, tobacco use costs Indiana $2.08 billion per year in health care costs, which includes more than $487 million per year in Medicaid costs, much of which is paid by the State and its taxpayers.

“This is all about improving the health of all Hoosiers and preventing our youth from being trapped with the addiction of nicotine,” Gray said. “The quality of health would increase much more with an environment where there was no exposure to secondhand smoke.”