This information provided by the Mahoning County District Board of Health.
SmokeFreeOhio is a campaign by the American Cancer Society in collaboration with the American Heart Association, American Lung Association, the Association of Ohio Health Commissioners (AOHC), the Ohio Hospital Association, the Ohio State Medical Association, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, and other supporting organizations to create smoke-free public places and workplaces in the state of Ohio. The AOHC asked health departments serving a population over 100,000 to collect 200 signatures to help SmokeFreeOhio reach its goal of collecting 100,000 by the end of July. Nine Board Of Health employees collected a total of 315 signatures - well beyond the goal of 200! One employee, Angelo Italiano, collected 158 signatures alone, telling everyone he had contact with within a span of a couple weeks about SmokeFree Ohio! We congratulate Angelo on a job well done.
The law will be placed on the November ballot for Ohioans to decide if they want their restaurants, worksites and other indoor facilities smoke free. This law will not ban smoking, just smoking indoors where the U.S. Surgeon General has stated that secondhand smoke directly causes 3,000 lung cancer deaths, 46,000 cardiovascular disease deaths and 430 deaths in babies due to sudden infant death syndrome EVERY YEAR.
However, a similar issue will be on the ballot called Smoke Less Ohio. It is an initiative started by tobacco companies along with the Ohio Restaurant Association that will ask voters to pass a constitutional amendment to permit smoking in restaurants, bars and workplaces. If Smoke Less Ohio would pass, the Smoke Free ordinances that have been passed in cities, such as Columbus and many of its surrounding suburbs would be overturned. Also, if both initiatives would pass, Smoke Less Ohio would supersede SmokeFreeOhio because it would be passed as a constitutional amendment.
The Ohio Ballot Board has been meeting and approved the following language for this November’s ballot.
For Smoke Less Ohio: ISSUE 4
To adopt Section 12 of Article XV of the Constitution
of the State of Ohio.
This proposed amendment would prohibit smoking in enclosed areas except tobacco stores, private residences or nonpublic facilities, separate smoking areas in restaurants, most bars, bingo or bowling facilities, separated areas of hotels and nursing homes, and race tracks. The amendment would invalidate retroactively any ordinance or local law in effect, and would prohibit the future adoption of any ordinance of local law, to the extent such ordinance or law prohibited smoking or tobacco products in any place exempted by the amendment.
For SmokeFreeOhio: ISSUE 5
Proposed Law
(Proposed by Initiative Petition)
To enact Chapter 3794 of the Ohio Revised Code to restrict smoking in places of employment and most places open to the public.
The proposed law would:
· Prohibit smoking in public places and places of employment;
· Exempt from the smoking restrictions certain locations, including private residences (except during the hours that the residence operates as a place of business involving non-residents of the private residence), designated smoking rooms in hotels, motels, and other lodging facilities; designated smoking areas for nursing home residents; retail tobacco stores, outdoor patios, private clubs, and family-owned and operated places of business;
· Authorize a uniform statewide minimum standard to protect workers and the public from secondhand tobacco smoke;
· Allow for the declaration of an establishment, facility, or outdoor area as nonsmoking;
· Require the posting of “No Smoking” signs, and the removal of all ashtrays and similar receptacles from any area where smoking is prohibited;
· Specify the duties of the department of health to enforce the smoking restrictions
· Create in the state treasury the “smoke free indoor air fund”;
· Provide for the enforcement of the smoking restrictions and for the imposition of civil fines upon anyone who violates the smoking restrictions.
A majority yes vote is necessary for passage.