JOPLIN, Mo. — Cody Johnston is a smoker. The Joplin man says he frequents restaurants and bars and believes a smoke-free indoor environment should be a matter of personal responsibility.

“You don’t trip people in the hallway, you don’t blow smoke in someone else’s face,” he said. “It’s just rude; we shouldn’t need to be told to take it outside.”

Johnston said he makes a point of not smoking inside his home, car, or when out with friends, but would not support a citywide ban on indoor smoking, saying it “shouldn’t be necessary.”

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.”

Joplin City Council will host a public forum on Sept. 18 concerning a smoking ban. Carl Junction’s council is still discussing the issue and Webb City’s council has voted to bring the issue before the public as either a proposed ordinance or a public hearing.

Stark said the smoke-free groups and CAP are not anti-smoker, just anti-smoke and believe that a ban on indoor smoking protects both business patrons and employees from secondhand smoke.

“People who work in restaurants and bars are not second-class citizens,” she said.

While many workplaces are already smoke free, some even imposing a smoke-free buffer zone around the building, many area restaurants and bars offer smoking sections, something CAP members say offers little to no protection for patrons.

“The smoke just does not recognize that invisible barrier,” Stark said. “(This ban) could save the lives of people we know.”

Jody Clark, general manager for Bella Peppers, 2525 S. Range Line, a smoke-free restaurant, said he would support a ban on smoking citywide.

“It’s a good idea,” he said. “It’s not hard to go outside if you have to have a cigarette.”

Clark, who smokes, is trying to quit and said quitting would be even harder if he had to work in a smoke-filled environment. According to Stark, some local restaurants managers she’s spoken with would like their establishments to go smoke free, but cannot, because of corporate regulation, without a city ordinance in place.

Those opposing the smoking ban cite the potential for businesses to lose the patronage of smokers and that the ban stipulates something that should be the choice of business owners. 

The Kitchen Pass Restaurant, 1212 S. Main St., is nonsmoking during lunch hours, but allows smoking for dinner and late-night traffic. Owner Marsha Pawlus said the restaurant has no formal opinion on the proposed ban, but said The Kitchen Pass will not go smoke free unless the city requires it. 

“I can’t say that I’m for (the ban), but I can’t say that I’m against it either,” she said.

 “Being a smoking establishment there’s people that don’t come, but being a nonsmoking establishment there’s people that wouldn’t come. If everyone in town is nonsmoking, we have just as much chance as anyone.”

Pawlus said if the city does pass a smoking ban, the restaurant’s outdoor patio area could bring them the business of more smokers, provided there are no stipulations within the ban against smoking in the immediate area outside a restaurant. 

Clean Air Project is funded in part by the Missouri Foundation for Health. Stark said support for CAP’s cause is growing on the grass-roots level with the public requesting “smoke free” yard signs.