State: Clean Indoor Air Act 'public health success story'

Publication Date: 2010-04-07

• Publication:Queen City News

After six months of living with the Montana Clean Indoor Air Act, state public health officials are calling full implementation of the smokefree law a public health success story.

"We know from extensive studies conducted in the U.S. and other countries that because of Montanan's smokefree law, Montana residents will be experiencing fewer heart attacks," says Anna Whiting Sorrell, director of the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services. "And down the road, fewer Montanans will develop lung cancer and coronary heart disease and other costly diseases will decline."

The 2005 Montana Legislature passed the Clean Indoor Air Act but allowed bars and casinos a four-year exception. Those exceptions expired Oct. 1, 2009, and full implementation of the law began.
Linda Lee, section supervisor for the Montana Tobacco Use Prevention Program (MTUPP), said compliance with the act among Montana bars and other businesses has been successful.

"MTUPP has received complaints for less than one percent of Montana's 2,800 bars," Lee says. "We can safely state that compliance among Montana licensed liquor establishments and other businesses is extremely high."