Missouri May Be Looking at a Smoke Free Future

Publication Date: 2010-03-22

• Author:Britt Neilsen
• Publication:KOMU.com

A local business hopes to see the statewide smoking ban pass.

Earlier this year Missouri House Representatives Walt Bivins and Jill Schupp proposed a bill that would, if passed, make Missouri a smoke-free state, with no exemptions. They worked with support from the American Lung Association and the American Cancer Society, who have opposed city and county bills in the past.

Missouri currently has 14 cities with smoking bans that make them completely smoke-free and 10 cities with bans that include some exemptions. Bivins hopes that passing this bill for the entire state would lead to some improvements including helping to reduce the competitiveness between restaurants, bars and casinos, as well as reduce the amount of state revenue expended on smoking related healthcare, which now exceeds more than 100 million dollars...

Molly and Les Wagner have owned and operated Billiards on Broadway for the past two years and pride themselves on their hamburgers. They opened their restaurant after Columbia went smoke-free and said they wouldn't have otherwise...

The Wagoners support the bill for the statewide smoking ban mainly because of the money the state will save and the health benefits to be gained. A business owner to the east, in Hartsburg, is impartial as to whether or not the ban passes.