Jump to full article: Omaha (NE) World Herald, 2009-06-04
Author: PAUL HAMMEL WORLD-HERALD BUREAU
Intro: Now that Nebraska has snuffed out smoking in almost all public places, a leading anti-smoking group is firing up more proposals to clean the air.
The Group to Alleviate Smoking Pollution, or GASP, has drafted 12 proposals that it hopes will follow the statewide smoking ban into the law books.
"We got the gold ring," said Mark Welsch of Omaha, the president of GASP. "Now we have to get the silver and the bronze." . . .
GASP's proposals would ban smoking in outdoor beer gardens and dining areas, as is done in Iowa, and within 25 feet of a doorway of a public building.
Welsch said the group also seeks to raise the legal age to buy tobacco, now 18, to 19 or even 21, to further restrict tobacco access to minors.
Several of GASP's ideas are targeted at keeping secondhand smoke away from children. It proposes to ban smoking in vehicles carrying minor children, near ballfields and playgrounds, and in state foster homes and in-home day care facilities.
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