JOPLIN, Mo. —
The effort to ban smoking in bars and restaurants — any indoor space, for that matter — is heating up in Southwest Missouri.
The Webb City council on Monday night voted to take a closer look at the issue and have a proposed ordinance drafted, which would ban smoking in public places. The local group pushing the issue, The Clean Air Project, is looking for support for the smoke-free idea and has approached other city governments, as well.
Joplin officials will hold a public hearing this fall to take the public’s temperature and the Carl Junction Chamber of Commerce has taken a poll of residents to see where they stand on the subject.
I don’t really have a dog in this fight. I smoked cigarettes during my Navy years and was in the last boot camp company in Orlando, Fla., where smoking was allowed.
Generic menthols at $2 a carton on base and my ship were my cig of choice. I never really had the urge to smoke before I signed up for Uncle Sam’s service, but in order to get a break from the daily grind of boot camp, you had to be quick to react when the company commander yelled, “Smoke ‘em if ya got ‘em.”
‘Bad for bar business’
Earlier this week I decided to head out and see what some folks in Joplin think about going smoke-free in Joplin’s watering holes. I stopped in at Rumors Lounge,1825 W. Seventh St. in Joplin, and sat down next to a guy with whom I sometimes swap stories and drink beer.
Dave Harris is a funny guy. He retired here after more than 40 years driving trucks in Chicago. Dave is a longtime smoker and makes no apology for it.
I asked him what he thought about the prospect of going smoke-free in Joplin’s bars and restaurants. I admit, I suspected I knew where he stood on the subject before I even asked.
“I think it would be bad for the bar business,” he told me, lighting a cigarette and taking a long drag. “Maybe not restaurants, but for bars, yeah. I think a law like that would put a lot of places out of business.”
Dave said he thinks the owners of establishments should be the ones to decide whether or not to go smoke-free.
“They are not going to open a bar for smokers only,” he laughed. “It’s smokers who don’t have any options. If a non-smoker doesn’t want to come in, then they don’t have to come in. They are the ones with options, not the smokers or the bar owners. The smokers and owners don’t have any options. It’s the non-smokers with all the options.”
I’ve only known Dave for a couple of months, but have often seen him move an ashtray with a smoldering cig downwind from another non-smoking customer, to keep the smoke from offending.
“I try to be a courteous guy when I’m in a bar or a restaurant,” he said. “I always put out my cigarette when someone is eating near by. If I’m sitting 40 feet away from someone that’s eating in a non-smoking section, I don’t think my smoke is going to bother them. I mean 40 feet away, really?”
No illusions
Dave, like many of my friends who smoke, is under no illusion where the ill effects of tugging on a cancer stick is concerned.
“Everybody who smokes knows it’s bad for them,” he said. “But, it’s our choice.”
While Dave said he has no plan to kick his 50-year habit, he did say he’s under some heavy pressure at home to cut back or quit all together.
“Put it this way,” he said, “My grandson has started telling me I need to quit. He’s 5 years old, but I think his mother is putting him up to it.”
At 61, Dave said he’s in as good of health as any guy his age and assured me he has no smoking-related health issues.
Where the dangers of second-hand smoke are concern, Dave is unconvinced.
“I’m don’t know about second hand smoke,” he said “They say it’s bad, but I don’t know. Being a smoker right now, I wouldn’t go into a bar where I couldn’t smoke. I’d grab a 12-pack and a carton of cigarettes and just go home where I can still smoke — at least for now.”
Lifestyles
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Dave Woods, Globe New Media Editor
Discussion
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