Jump to full article: Oldham (KY) Era, 2007-03-29
Author: Mark Hengel
Intro: Lobbyist group Smoke-free Oldham scored a victory March 20 in its fight to pass a comprehensive smoking ban in Oldham County.
After a Smoke-Free Oldham volunteer contacted the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA officials removed a Web page from its Internet site that provided guidelines for a smoke-free room.
The EPA guidelines for maintaining a smoker's lounge are cited in a proposed amendment to the comprehensive smoking-ban ordinance that is currently before Oldham County Fiscal Court.
The guidelines come from a 1993 EPA document called, "Secondhand Smoke: What You Can Do as Parents, Decisionmakers and Building Occupants."
John Sutton, a Crestwood resident who contacted the EPA, said the agency's speedy removal of guidelines from the Web site shows that fiscal court should not pass the amendment.
"I would like the fiscal court to know they are looking at dated information," Sutton said at a press conference last Friday. . . .
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But Liz Burrows, project director for Smoke-Free Oldham, said she hopes the EPA's decision prompts magistrates to rethink the amendment.
"I just can't imagine that they would base an amendment on guidelines that the EPA no longer supports," she said.
Bob Axelrad, senior policy advisor for the indoor environments division of the EPA, wrote in an e-mail to Sutton that the agency must update the information, and that the information was never intended for use in legislation.
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