Nightlife / Stephanie Depasquale

The smoking ban and the casino exemption

| Saturday, July 19, 2008 | () comments

Stephanie De Pasquale

I spent only two hours of my Monday in two Davenport bars, talking with smokers about the soon-to-take-effect Iowa smoking ban and how it would affect their social lives.

But those two hours were more than enough to make my clothes and hair stink of cigarettes, an odor I don’t appreciate as a nonsmoker.

While I understand the frustrations of not being able to smoke on patios if the bar also serves food and the inequity of the casino exemption, I will be very glad to come home from covering bars and the bands that play in them without smelling like an ashtray.

However, I do have to agree with Larry Amerine, a nonsmoker who is upset about the ban because it means his friends who smoke will no longer come out to the Rusty Nail in west Davenport because of the ban. Amerine said that if the law was purely about keeping Iowans healthy, the casinos wouldn’t be exempt.

Amerine also believes that, by exempting casinos, the state is more interested in adding to its coffers than protecting Iowans from secondhand smoke.

I would say that Iowans such as Amerine have a valid argument and that perhaps the Iowa Legislature should revisit the smoking ban during its next session to make it universal throughout public venues and really protect all Iowans from secondhand smoke. Such legislation wouldn’t make Amerine happy, but it would give him one less point to debate.

Stephanie De Pasquale can be contacted at (563) 333-2639 or sdepasquale@qctimes.com.