A few of the Cities with Smoke-free Ordinances:

The First Native American Tribe to be Smoke and Tobacco-free

PRESS RELEASE

Browning, Montana, July 21, 2005.

The Blackfeet Tribal Business Council passed the Blackfeet Tobacco Free Act on July 21, 2005. Beginning September 1, 2005 all public places will be smoke-free and spit tobacco-free on the Blackfeet Reservation. The Blackfeet Tobacco Act states, “(t) he passage of the Blackfeet Tobacco Free Act is dedicated to all the Blackfeet members who have died and suffer from commercial tobacco related cancers and diseases. The Blackfeet Tobacco Free Act is enacted to protect the public health of the Blackfeet Nation, now and in the future.” The passage of the Blackfeet Tobacco Free Act by the Blackfeet Tribal Business Council is part of many tribal health initiatives to address commercial tobacco health related diseases and deaths on the Blackfeet Reservation. The Blackfeet Nation enacted in 1989 a smoke-free and spit tobacco-free tribal buildings and programs resolution and has maintained a Blackfeet Tobacco Program since July 2000 with funding from Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. Further, the Blackfeet Tribal Health Department initiated in 2004 a prevention promotion plan that includes a commercial tobacco prevention and cessation strategy.

A unique component of the Blackfeet Tobacco Free Act is the acknowledgement that: “Blackfeet Cultural, spiritual and ceremonial use of tobacco is an inherent immutable component of the Blackfeet Cultural Landscape. The Blackfeet Tobacco Free Act does not ban, prohibit or restrict in any manner the traditional, cultural, spiritual, and ceremonial sacred tobacco use by the Blackfeet People.” Any questions or information regarding the Blackfeet Tobacco Free Act can be directed to Lori New Breast, Director of the Blackfeet Tobacco Program at (406) 338-2413 or lorilou@3rivers.net.

What happened in Italy?

Italy Loves and Respects Clean Indoor Air

Acceptance of smokefree workplace law smashes stereotypes

Parts excerpted from ANSA, 8/26/05

ROME , August 26 - The chances of success for Italy 's smokefree workplace law looked uncertain nine months ago, when the country was preparing to follow the tobacco-free lead of Ireland , New York , and California .  Frightened of losing customers, bar and restaurant associations were busy mounting challenges in the administrative courts, while smokers' groups started to campaign for a referendum to overturn the law.

These threats eventually died out, but what many people believed would cripple the reform was the notoriously anarchic nature of the Italian public. It was feared smokers here would show their dissent by simply ignoring the new rules and things would effectively stay as they were in the country's cafes, restaurants, bars and clubs. This possibility seemed all the more likely as bar and restaurant owners threatened not to enforce the law, arguing they are business people, not "sheriffs of the state."

Then January 10 arrived, the clean indoor air law went into effect and, to universal amazement, it was seamlessly accepted by all.

Apart from one notorious customer in a Bologna pizzeria, there was hardly any resistance. The collapse in trade feared by bar and restaurant owners also failed to materialize. Smokers continue to go their local bar for their morning cappuccino and enjoy a plate of pasta at their favorite trattoria later in the day. The only difference is that when they feel like a cigarette, they have to go outside.

The police have confirmed that the level of compliance is remarkably high.  In the law's first six months, police carried out over 6,000 checks to make sure the law was being observed, but issued only 300 fines. What's more, most of those fines were not slapped on smokers having a sly ciggie where they should not, but on establishments that had failed to put up No Smoking signs.

"It seems that the Italian people have welcomed with intelligence the protection of public health," said former Health Minister Girolamo Sirchia, the law's architect. The fact that clean indoor air has been accepted so well has led some to argue a few national stereotypes need revising.

"Have we suddenly become respectful and disciplined?  No. It's simply that we are not stupid," wrote Beppe Severgnini in Milan-based daily, Corriere della Sera.  "When a law is sensible we accept it.  And when it is enforced - with penalties and social pressure - we even respect it."  The law's success is largely due to the widespread awareness of the dangers of tobacco smoke.

Several polls have shown that support for the law is high among both non-smokers and smokers.  "When the law was introduced there was a great deal of skepticism about whether it would be possible to enforce," wrote novelist and university professor Stefano Zecchi in weekly magazine Gente.  "Instead the Italian people have shown themselves to be mature and respectful of a law, whose value they are well aware of."

Severgnini, meanwhile, adds the government's determination to show its teeth to make the law work has been a key factor.  Smokers who break the ban face fines of up to 275 euros, while bar and restaurant owners who do not enforce it risk penalties of as much as 2,200 euros.

The Italian Tobacconist Federation estimates that cigarette sales have fallen 6.2% since the law came into force.

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