May 20, 2006
Tim Mitchell

That big cloud of smoke you see leading out of Champaign-Urbana could be the trail of smokers driving to restaurants, bars and bowling alleys in neighboring communities.

City and village leaders in Gibson City, Gifford, Mahomet, Monticello, Paxton, Philo, Rantoul, Savoy, St. Joseph, Tolono and Villa Grove all say they have no plans to follow Champaign's lead in passing a comprehensive smoking ban, which will be effective Aug. 1 if Urbana approves a similar ordinance in the next several weeks.

Meanwhile, business owners in the surrounding communities say Champaign-Urbana smokers will be welcome there. They anticipate increased sales from C-U smokers looking for a place to puff.

In Savoy, Village Manager Dick Helton said no one has approached the village board about adopting a smoking ban.

"Even if it were proposed, I'm not sure there is enough support to put it on the agenda," Helton said. "This is not something that should be regulated. We believe it is up to a business to make a choice whether to allow smoking and up to the individuals to decide whether they want to support that business."

"Just because Champaign and Urbana pass an anti-smoking ordinance, doesn't mean we have to follow suit," said Savoy Village Board member Bill Smith.

Helton said he wouldn't be surprised to see Champaign-Urbana smokers head to the Old Orchard Lanes, Senator's Inn and Elks Club or to the new Applebee's restaurant that is currently under construction.

"If there are people who want to smoke in public, they will find a place where they are allowed to do what they want to do," Helton said.

B.J. Hackler, St. Joseph's mayor and vice president of the Illinois Municipal League, said his village gives its businesses the option to allow or prohibit smoking.

"There's no movement to ban smoking here because it doesn't cause a problem," Hackler said. "We already have quite a few people come to eat here from out of town. If they can't smoke in Champaign-Urbana restaurants, I suspect there will be quite a few more."

Rural business owners say they look forward to the extra business.

"We don't get a whole lot of business from Champaign-Urbana, but if the smokers are looking for someplace to go, they'd be welcome here," said Eric Thompson, co-owner of the Caddyshack Bar and Grill in Rantoul.

Philo Tavern owner Brad Bollman said the C-U ban could be good for his business.

"There's a possibility what is happening in Champaign-Urbana could be positive for the local towns," said Bollman. "There's also a possibility that people who feel strongly against smoking will start to go to Champaign-Urbana. We'll have to wait and see."

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Experts say Illinois bans might curb smoking but won't snuff out the habit

May 21, 2006
JAN DENNIS
Associated Press

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. - Even in pouring rain and biting cold, Lisa McQuillen walks halfway around the building for a cigarette during breaks from her register at a smoke-free Bloomington grocery store.

McQuillen says she'll be stepping away from a beer and friends as well next year under new laws that will add Bloomington and neighboring Normal to a growing wave of Illinois cities with bans on smoking in bars and restaurants.

"With the price of cigarettes and now this hassle, I probably should think about quitting, but I won't. Not right now, anyway," says McQuillen, 41, of Normal.

But some smokers might, according to supporters of bans now on the books in 19 cities from Springfield to Chicago and awaiting votes in more than 40 other towns.

Though aimed at clearing the air to protect nonsmokers, supporters say the bans also could nudge smokers to kick the habit as once-hazy taverns and eateries join workplaces and other public buildings as smoke-free zones.

"I think if you make it less convenient for people, if they are finding themselves next to the Dumpster or at the back door looking in, they may ask themselves, `What am I doing?'" said Adam Nielsen, a councilman who voted for a ban in Normal that takes effect Jan. 1 along with Bloomington's.

Sociologists and health experts differ on how much the bans might dent Illinois smoking rates, which are slightly above the national average at about 22 percent of the state's adult population. But most agree it's unlikely smoking will ever be snuffed out completely.

"People like to smoke. ... You can't ban things successfully, at least things that people enjoy," says Darren Sherkat, head of the sociology department at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.

Still, many health and behavior experts predict the bans will help carve at least a little deeper into smoking rates that have slid from 59.9 percent of the adult population nationally in 1955 - before smoking's health risks were confirmed - to 20.9 percent in 2004.

With virtually nowhere to light up indoors except home, experts say, smokers will find themselves going longer between puffs - time that ultimately could convince some that they can give up tobacco entirely.

Bloomington Mayor Steve Stockton, a retired State Farm executive, says the insurer received thank-yous from employees who said a workplace ban imposed in the early 1990s was their impetus to quit.

As more adults quit smoking, fewer teens will start, according to health officials, who say lack of exposure is the best way to ensure kids don't experiment, then wind up hooked.

Finally, sociologists and health experts say the bans eventually could help redefine social norms, attaching a negative stigma that would make smoking a behavior to avoid, not mimic.

"We could reach a point where it's no longer cool to be smoking. First of all, you're not going to be very comfortable yourself if it's below zero. But on top of that people who see you out there are going to look at you in a different way," said Thomas O'Rourke, a University of Illinois community health professor.

Mark Peysakhovich, senior director of advocacy for the American Heart Association's regional office in Chicago, says it won't be easy to change public perception of a habit glamorized in movies, television shows and tobacco company marketing.

"We're certainly not against any effort to make smoking less cool. But we think we still have a fairly long way to go to reverse a very large pro-smoking bias that has been around for decades and decades," Peysakhovich said.

Some experts predict indoor smoking bans could shave Illinois smoking rates by a few percentage points or even cut them in half, though the declines could take years.

Studies show bans have helped curb smoking across the county, where 14 states, the District of Columbia and hundreds of cities have comprehensive indoor smoking bans that include bars and restaurants.

According to one study, smoking in New York City plunged by 11 percent from 2002 to 2003, when an indoor smoking ban was accompanied by a cigarette tax increase and a quit-smoking initiative that offered free nicotine replacement therapy.

Nick Maroules, head of the sociology department at Illinois State University, says Illinois likely won't see such dramatic results.

"My sense is that people who are committed smokers will find ways to smoke around the ban, if you will. ... If it were that simple, a lot of people would have quit smoking already," Maroules said.

Mary Jo Guerin, who tends bar at Bloomington's Coppertop Lounge, agrees.

"You don't push people to quit smoking. They're only going to do it if they want to do it. It's like drinking," said Guerin, 38, of Downs.

The heart association's Peysakhovich says he understands, after kicking his own decade-long, three-pack-a-day habit 11 years ago. But he hopes health concerns and bans ultimately persuade other smokers to follow suit.

"If smoking itself is the final victim of tobacco use, I think we would all celebrate," Peysakhovich said.
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