The Department of Health has detailed the rules and expectations of the state-wide smoking ban, which begins July 1, in a 13-page draft. According to the Iowa Department of Health, the administrative rules will be presented to the Administrative Rules Review Committee and the Iowa Board of Health on June 11.
Because the document is wordy and some of the meanings may be misconstrued, here’s a simplified run down of what the ban actually affects and what it means for local business.
Locations where smoking is prohibited: Restaurants; outdoor seating areas at restaurants; bars; financial institutions; public and private educational facilities; health care provider locations; shopping malls; entertainment venues, this includes theaters, concert halls, auditoriums and other similar facilities or sports arenas; laundries; schools; public transportation facilities, including buses and taxicabs, and the ticketing, boarding and waiting areas of these facilities; reception areas; aquariums, galleries, libraries and museums; retail food production and marketing establishments; service establishments; retail stores; polling place; convention facilities and meeting rooms; waiting rooms; public buildings and places of public assembly owned, leased or operated by the state; private residences when used as child care facilities or health care provider locations and child care facilities.
Locations where smoking is NOT prohibited: Fairgrounds; institutions administered by the Dept. of Corrections; facilities of the Iowa national guard; private residences; hotel and motel rooms that are designated as smoking rooms; retail tobacco stores; private and semi-private rooms in long-term care facilities; outdoor areas that are places of employment that are not in areas that prohibit smoking; private clubs that have no employees except when used for a function to which the general public is invited; limousines under private hire; enclosed areas within a place of employment that provides a smoking cessation program; farm tractors, trucks and implements of husbandry; gaming floors; the Iowa veterans home and unenclosed open patios.
How the act is enforced: According to the draft rules, people have to phone in a complaint on a toll-free hot line, fill out a form for mailing or go online to register a complaint to the Iowa Dept. of Public Health. The Web site is http://www.iowasmokefreeair.gov. Following the complaint, a new subdivision of the IDPH has to call the concerned citizen who placed the complaint and assess the situation. If the situation is worthy the IDPH alerts proper authorities who will grant a citation to the violator.
The draft rules state that some bars will be able to maintain smoking on an outside patio with the proper signage and space from other properties or areas where smoking is prohibited.
If any bar plans to avoid the loss of business the ban may create, the draft rules show how the IDPH intends to foil the bar owners’ plans.
‘‘Infiltrates,’’ is a term seen throughout the document.
‘‘Infiltrate means to permeate an area where smoking is prohibited by passing through a wall, ceiling, floor, window, door, or ventilation system to the extent that an individual can smell secondhand smoke,’’ states the draft rules.
The draft rules use this term to make it so that even within the exceptions to the ban like unenclosed outdoor patios or fairgrounds, the ban can still be enforced. All a nearby concerned citizen has to do is smell secondhand smoke in an area where smoking is prohibited to complain to the IDPH.
Any local business that wants to allow smoking on an outdoor patio is going to not only have a sign at every entrance and exit, remove all ashtrays from anywhere except the non-regulated area, but also prevent the smoke from entering a smoke-free area.
To many this ban is going to mean great things for our state.
‘‘A giant step forward for public health in our state this year,’’ said IDPH Director Tom Newton.
But it is undeniable that the plan laid out within the bill will require a great deal of work from businesses and may effect their profit.
In regards to the ban causing a business slump, ‘‘I think it will a little, but everybody’s got to do it,’’ said Jamie Stucky, a manager at Third Base.
Based on how the draft rules outline the implementation and enforcement of the ban, success is reliant on self-efficacy and a trust in the goodwill of Iowa’s business community.
Contact Alex Schuman at (515) 573-2141 or aschuman@messengernews.net
