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Group Wants Smoking Ban Extended

Updated: Monday, January 21 2013, 07:42 AM CST
Thirty million dollars over two years: that’s the savings on healthcare that State Sen. Rodney Ellis says his statewide smoking ban bill would have, if approved, and it wouldn’t cost the state anything to enforce. It would ban smoking in public places statewide, including restaurants, bars, and businesses, making the Lone Star State one of 30 to go smoke-free.

Austin’s had a similar smoking ban for bars and restaurants in place since 2005, the first city in the state to do so, but now one advocacy group is hoping they take it a step further. The Live Tobacco Free Austin group, who states one of their main goals is to protect people from secondhand smoke, wants to see the ban extended to outdoor decks and patios. It’s a move that has also recently drawn support from the City’s Early Childhood Council, with the Statesman reporting support from the Austin-Travis County Health and Human Services Department.

The group says there’s no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke. Stats on the group’s website claim thousands of Texans die each year from it, and that a person sitting within three to six feet of a smoker outdoors can be exposed to levels of secondhand smoke similar to those indoors. Overall, the site claims tobacco kills 11 people each week in Travis County.

There is currently no item set on Austin City Council’s agenda for the issue.

As for the statewide ban, Sen. Ellis has already tried to pass it twice, but in the last two sessions, the bill has failed.

By Adam Bennett Group Wants Smoking Ban Extended