Arkansas Clean Indoor Air, needs work now

This morning KUAR, the public radio station in Little Rock, ran this story on the 3rd anniversary of Arkansas Clean Indoor Air act.  http://tinyurl.com/lxwlqt  

The statement is made that the law went into effect 3 years ago but fails to mention that the state only began enforcement  2 years ago.  The inside scoop here is that when the environmental branch of ADH was planning to enforce the law the tobacco prevention branch was not invited to these meetings.  As recently as September of 2007 ADH was telling businesses that secondhand smoke could not drift back inside a building when, in fact, the law specifically does not regulate any outside smoking.

Dr. Gary Wheeler is quoted in saying that Arkansas has not seen an expected reduction in heart attacks yet and there may be due to other variables unique to Arkansas.  He goes on to suggest that confusion about the law could be rectified by removing the exemptions.  Dr. Wheeler is right on both counts.

The Arkansas variable that may be most important is the fact that the ACIA is not comprehensive protection from tobacco smoke.

Celebrated advocate, UCSF’s Dr. Stanton Glantz, during a presentation at Pulaski Tech in NLR last year, specified that heart attack rates only go down when clean indoor air laws have no exemptions, like bars.  http://tinyurl.com/ktd39n

Arkansas clean air law may have numerically increased the number of smoke free businesses in what seems a dramatic fashion. But the large exemptions, like the over 21 loophole, probably did not decrease anywhere near as dramatically the amount of secondhand smoke to which people were exposed.  And to stretch the argument further those individuals still enduring heavy exposure to SHS, bar patrons and employees, may well also be those at the greatest risk for heart disease; poor health habits, little health care, etc.  

Arkansas Clean Indoor Air act needs a tremendous overhaul.  This is made most urgent given that we are now discovering the new lottery legislation opens the door for potential gambling parlors.  These parlors as well as the racinos will no doubt include restrictions for minors and a carte blanch ‘adults only’ cachet for the tobacco industry.