Smoking ban passes
Published 3:56 pm Friday, March 2, 2007
By By ANDY HAMILTON / Niles Daily Star
NILES – A policy prohibiting smoking in enclosed public places and private businesses will go into effect in Berrien County in 90 days.
The county board of commissioners passed Thursday night in Niles the Berrien County Clean Indoor Air Regulation by a vote of 10-3.
Larry Clymer (Niles) and John LaMore (Niles Township) were among those who supported the resolution.
Opposing the Clean Air Regulation were Jon Hinkelman, Bob Wooley and Mamie Yarbrough.
By state law, counties and municipalities cannot pass regulations prohibiting smoking in bars and restaurants.
The first public hearing on the Clean Air Regulation was held one week ago in St. Joseph. The majority of the dozen people who spoke voiced support of the regulation, and many told stories of loved ones who had fell ill or died from smoking.
A second public hearing was held Thursday prior to the vote. About 20 citizens addressed the board of commissioners, but this time all but about five opposed the regulation.
Grace Gordon, a registered nurse with Lakeland Regional Health Care, made comments in support of the Clean Air Regulation.
"I have seen the effects of smoking on patients … but also on patients that are not smokers," but are exposed to heavy amounts of second-hand smoke, Gordon said.
Most who urged a vote against the Clean Air Regulation – smokers and non-smokers – said it would violate small private business owners' freedom to operate as they pleased.
Some like John Easton of Niles opposing the regulation said fumes and dust commonly found in his manufacturing business are just as harmful as cigarette smoke.
Jim Wheetley, a non-smoker, said he prohibits smoking in his small business in Niles but opposed the Clean Air Regulation, partly because he said it could not be "uniformly enforced." Wheetley also said people have the choice to avoid businesses that allow smoking, like when he chooses to eat at non-smoking restaurants.
"I voted with my feet," Wheetley said.
James Jorgensen, also a small business owner in Niles, said customers to his motorcycle repair shop would now have more rights in the building he owns than he does.
"You own the property, you go there 12 hours a day … at the same time the government tells you you must modify your behavior," Jorgensen said.
Yarbrough, commissioner for Benton Harbor and Benton Township, encouraged businesses and employees to draw up their own rules for smoking in the workplace, but said requiring them to do so is not the job of the county.
"This is the United States of America, and cigarettes are legal. Perhaps what we should be doing is working to make them illegal," Yarbrough said. "I've gone into places and I get to the door and I turn around because I don't want my hair to smell like that or my clothes to smell like that. I choose where I'm going and what I do."
Clymer, who represents the City of Niles on the board of commissioners, said he didn't think the position that the county was imposing on small businesses was valid.
"Think for one minute if the health board hadn't imposed laws and rules on handling food and wastewater and your water where we would be today. That's a freedom I suppose some of us years and years and years ago would have felt 'stay out of my life I want to eat where I want to eat I want to food prepared the way I want it prepared.' So to me that's not a valid argument," Clymer said prior to casting his vote.
The Clean Air Regulation prohibits smoking in all enclosed workplaces and public places, including business and public transportation vehicles. It also requires business owners to establish no smoking areas within 25 feet of entrances, windows and ventilation systems of all workplaces, and to place all smoking trash receptacles outside those same areas.
The regulation does not prohibit people from smoking while walking down the sidewalk passed business entrances, such as in downtown Niles.