Smoking ban, air standards discussed at local challenge kickoff

John Ramsey knows how tough it is to quit smoking.

The American Lung Association volunteer and asthmatic tried many times before finally kicking the habit.

"You talk about an idiot — a guy with asthma, smoking,” he said Friday at the 2008 Clean Air Challenge kickoff luncheon at the Waterford Marriott.

Ramsey decided to quit when his doctor guaranteed he would die early and painfully.

"If I can (quit smoking), anybody can do it,” he said of his former two-pack-a-day habit.

Oklahoma bars, restaurants and workplaces should be smoke free, Health Commissioner Dr. Mike Crutcher said.

Crutcher called for passage of Senate Bill 1875, which would expand the state's 2003 smoking ban to bars and smoking rooms in public buildings and restaurants. The bill cleared the Senate Business and Labor Committee Feb. 19 and awaits a floor vote.

Restaurants that built smoking rooms under the 2003 law would have until 2013 to become smoke-free.

Crutcher said public health's challenge is to make the environment safe.

"No one should doubt that breathing tobacco smoke into your lungs is dangerous to your health,” he said, noting that health experts estimate secondhand smoke exposure kills about 700 Oklahomans a year.

"No one should be exposed to toxic air in order to keep their job,” he said.

Crutcher called on Oklahomans to ask legislators to support the anti-smoking bill.

"All Oklahoma businesses would then be on equal terms when it comes to smoke-free workplace protections,” he said, adding that 23 other states have passed similar laws.

Crutcher said heart attack rates drop after such laws are implemented. Moreover, he said, research has shown eliminating smoke from bars and restaurants doesn't have a negative impact and may even have a positive effect on business.

Opponents of the legislation have said it will affect thousands of businesses and cost restaurants money they have invested in smoking rooms.

Mackenzie Burkhart, a Norman middle school student, wrote a letter about air quality to the lung association as a class assignment. The result: an invitation to speak about clean air at Friday's luncheon.

The eighth-grader also stumped for the legislation.

"By making this a law, that's just one more place that's not causing a problem for our lungs,” she said.

During much of his short life, Christopher Kitchell, 7, has raised money for the lung association, selling lemonade, having bake sales and blowing the starting whistle at races.

"We can raise money so that everyone can have healthier lives,” he said.

Not all speakers discussed tobacco.

Scott Thomas, environmental programs manager for the Department of Environmental Quality, predicts the Environmental Protection Agency will lower allowed atmospheric ozone levels when it releases revised standards March 12. Depending on what the agency sets, Oklahoma could be out of compliance, potentially triggering more stringent ozone prevention.

The 2008 Clean Air Challenge will conclude May 10 with a 5K run, a one- mile walk and a Kid's Dash at the Oklahoma City Zoo.