Jump to full article: Mason City (IA) Globe-Gazette, 2009-07-02
Author: ROD BOSHART, Globe Gazette Des Moines Bureau
Intro: Iowa's anti-tobacco efforts have ushered in a major cultural change that has reduced the number of adult smokers and made workplaces healthier places, backers of Iowa's indoor smoking ban said Wednesday.
"This is probably one of the biggest cultural shifts in a short amount of time that our state will ever see," said Rep. Janet Petersen, D-Des Moines, who helped enact the smokefree air act which took effect July 1, 2008.
Advocates said the restriction covering virtually all public places -- except casino gambling areas, the Iowa State Fairgrounds and the Iowa Veterans Home in Marshalltown -- and state and federal cigarette tax increases have helped reduce smoking among Iowa adults to 14 percent compared to 19 percent two years earlier.
State Attorney General Tom Miller said Iowa has jumped into the top five states nationally in terms of smoking compliance. He noted that in the 1960s about four out of every 10 Iowa adults smoked tobacco products.
"We've really turned a corner," he told a Statehouse news conference.
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