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Other states following Arkansas' lead with anti-smoking legislation Sunday, Aug 26, 2007 By Rob Moritz Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - After then-state Rep. Bob Mathis opposed the governor's signature proposal to ban smoking in public places during a 2006 special session, few lawmakers took him seriously when he proposed an anti-smoking bill of his own. But Mathis pushed his bill through the Legislature, and the measure has made Arkansas a national trendsetter and the Democrat from Hot Springs something of an international celebrity. With passage of the Arkansas Protection for Secondhand Smoke for Children Act of 2006, Arkansas became the first state in the nation to ban smoking in passenger vehicles where a child under 6 years old is riding in a child safety seat. Since its adoption, the law has been used as a template for similar bans in cities and states across the nation and around the world. "I am not on an anti-smoking crusade. In fact, I'm probably alive today because I quit," said Mathis, a former chain smoker who gave up cigarettes more than two years ago. "(But) I'm very proud of what has happened. I love it. If nothing else, it has brought an awareness of smoking around children." Since the Arkansas law went into effect in July 2006, smoking bans in vehicles in which children are riding have been approved in Louisiana, Bangor, Me., and Rockland County, N.Y. Puerto Rico also has approved such a ban. Similar measures are being considered in New York City, and in California, Maine and New Jersey. Proposals have failed in Utah and Connecticut. Internationally, the Australian state of South Australia has approved a similar anti-smoking measure, and officials in Paris and in Canada are taking a look. Reporters from Paris and California have interviewed Mathis. He has also appeared on Fox News. "I'm very pleased about the snowball effect," Mathis said. "It has brought an awareness to smoking around children, whether it's in a car, at home, or anywhere else for that matter." Dr. Carolyn Dresler, chief of the state Department of Health's Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Program, said the Arkansas law has caused quite a stir among anti-smoking advocates. "This is something just like the smoke-free laws in public places, it's sweeping the world," she said. Anyone who violates the Arkansas law can be fined $25, though first offenders can have the fine waived if they enter a smoking cessation program. While Dresler praised the law, she said she hopes it can be amended during the 2009 session to raise the age limit and the fine. Some of the bans passed since Arkansas' are much tougher, she said. "Arkansas set the bar low and others are looking to make it stricter," Dresler said, noting that in Bangor, Me., smoking is illegal in vehicles with passengers under 18. Mathis, who during three terms in the state House was known for his gruff argumentative manner, said it was never his intention to become an anti-smoking advocate. Once, to show his frustration in how the state's tobacco settlement money was being spent on smoking cessation programs, he went to the well of the House with a bottle of bubbles emblazoned with a "Stamp Out Smoking" logo. Before he could begin his demonstration, Mathis was promptly dressed down by the House speaker, who chastised him for violating House rules that bar lawmakers from bringing props to the well. Mathis went against the grain during the 2006 special session in opposing then-Gov. Mike Huckabee's Clean Indoor Act, which later became Act 8. The law prohibits smoking in nearly all work places, including restaurants. Mathis said called the measure too much government interference. "I felt that people that own a business or restaurant should still be able to decide how they want their business to be run," he said. "If people knew beforehand a restaurant was a smoke free place they could choose not to go there." He said he got the idea to ban smoking in cars with small children as passengers after attending a legislative committee meeting in 2005 at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. It stemmed from the issue of secondhand smoke. "I'm on record as saying at the meeting, 'I wish I was coming back to pass a bill banning smoking in cars with children in child restraints,'" Mathis said. "To me, my rationale is ... it was a form of child abuse." When the governor later decided to call a special session and included on the agenda his Clean Indoor Act, Mathis saw the opportunity file his smoking ban bill. During the special session, few though Mathis could get his bill passed because of his known opposition to the governor's bill. In fact, he managed to get an amendment added to the governor's bill, which Huckabee opposed and suggested was an attempt to derail the Clean Indoor Act. Mathis' amendment exempted motels with fewer than 25 rooms from the smoking ban. The original bill required all hotels and motels to have at least 20 percent of their rooms smoke free. Despite Mathis' amendment, the governor's bill passed overwhelmingly in both the House and Senate and was signed into law. Mathis' anti-smoking proposal, however, had a rough road in the House but passed with 57 votes. It needed 51. In the 35-member Senate, after an impassioned speech by Sen. Terry Smith, D-Hot Springs, who implored lawmakers to "do something for the children," it passed 34-1. "No one really gave me a chance," he said. 'I felt like it was a very legitimate piece of legislation and I'm proud of what happened." |
