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Smoking bans proposed would eliminate smoking in restaurants, bars
Jump to full article: Joplin (MO) Globe, 2010-08-28
Author: Alexandra Nicolas
Intro: Smoke Free Joplin, Smoke Free Webb City and Smoke Free Carl Junction coalitions have approached their respective city councils to push for a ban on smoking in businesses, including bars and restaurants. Each council is in a different phase of examining a possible smoking ban, but Krista Stark, event coordinator and health promotions specialist for the Clean Air Project (CAP), based on the Missouri Southern State University campus, hopes all three will adopt a 100 percent ban on smoking in businesses.
Other cities in Missouri, including Kansas City, St. Louis and Columbia, have total indoor smoking bans. Springfield has a ban with exemptions. Businesses can be exempted based on their capacity or number of seats and the amount of profits made from alcohol, essentially allowing bars to permit smoking.
"The opposition was that it would put people out of business and that it regulated something that should be a choice," said Mike Brothers, an interim director of public information for the city of Springfield.
But the discussion persists in Springfield.
"It is a polarizing issue and one that has involved a lot of discussion," Brothers said. "(The council's) trying to come to an agreement everyone can live with."
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