DAYTON, Ky. — A northern Kentucky city is taking a hard stance against smoking in enclosed public places and work spaces. Dayton is joining the list of other Kentucky communities that have enacted comprehensive smoke-free ordinances.
However, one bar owner says the ordinance is taking away her customers’ freedom, and could ultimately put her out of business. While she and others in the city feel the ordinance is unfair, numbers compiled by the University of Kentucky School of Nursing show similar ordinances have resulted in positive health effects in other communities.
Flynn’s Rose room in Dayton is one of the city’s last remaining neighborhood bars. Patricia Flynn has owned the bar for 18 years, but she said it’s been her home for much longer.
“I bartended here when I was 21 years old,” said the soon-to-be 65-year-old. “That’s why I bought this place. It meant something to me.”
The people who come into her bar aren’t just customers, Flynn said. They’re family. She said it’s always been important to her for her ‘family’ to feel they’re at home, too, and have freedom.
She said that freedom is now being threatened.
“I don’t see what the big deal is, with all the other issues in this town, why they want to worry about people over 21 smoking a cigarette and having a beer,” Flynn said.
On Sept. 6, Dayton City Council passed a smoke-free air ordinance, which will go into effect Nov. 5, in a 3-2 vote.
The ordinance bans smoking inside any building of all businesses in the city, not just bars. Nonprofits, such as Dayton Eagles and the VFW, are excluded, as they are not open to the public, only members.
Smoking outside is still allowed, unless the property owner wants it to be non-smoking. Open-air workplaces such as construction sites are included in the ban whenever there are two or more employees present.
First offenses by the property owner will receive a warning. Subsequent offenses may result in fines. Initial offenses for smoking in a smoke-free area may result in trespassing charges if the property owner or employee asks the person to extinguish or leave, and they refuse.
Dayton will become the 42nd Kentucky community to enact a comprehensive smoke-free workplace ordinance, as Dr. Ellen Hahn, a UK professor of nursing, explained.
“They have taken a historic step for northern Kentucky. Because it is the only strong, comprehensive smoke free law in that region, other than Williamstown in Grant County,”
Hahn said. “It’s a big deal. And it’s a big day. And I applaud the leaders at the city council in Dayton for doing the right thing to protect workers, and also to protect our youth, and our pregnant moms and our babies.”
The UK School of Nursing’s Center for Smoke Free Policy worked with Dayton, as it has with other communities, to help put together its ordinance. Dr. Hahn said data collected around the state shows that in communities with these ordinances in place:
- People are less likely to get lung cancer
- Young people are less likely to use tobacco
- People with emphysema are less likely to go to the hospital
- Pregnant women are less likely to give preterm birth
“It’s all about keeping our air clean. It’s not about the smoker. It’s about the smoke,” Dr. Hahn said. “These laws, when they’re put into effect, they don’t tell smokers they can’t smoke. They can still smoke in about 99% of the land mass in Dayton. They just can’t smoke inside. This isn’t about taking rights away. This is about worker health.”
Flynn and others in Dayton have argued the ordinance unfairly affects her bar, which is one of the few places in town people have been able to go to smoke inside. The bar has smoke eaters, which are devices that remove smoke and odors from a room.
When asked for comments about the ordinance, James Harris wrote to reporter Sam Knef on Facebook, “I’m not a smoker, and not 100% opposed to smoking restrictions, but I have a problem with how this ordinance was passed. The City was completely disingenuous in its passing of this ordinance. The ONLY places affected by this ordinance were the bars located in the City. Everywhere else that the ordinance ‘applied’ already restricted smoking.”
Flynn said she’s well aware of the wealth of information available on the harmful effects of smoking, and she thinks her customers are, too.
“People are 21. They have a choice to come in here, knowing it’s smoking. There’s a sign it’s smoking. It’s about choice. And they’re taking that choice away from the citizens of Dayton,” Flynn said.
She said she’s working on a petition, and would like to see citizens have the chance to vote on the ordinance.
“I just think it was really shady. I would like to see if we can get more people involved. And then if we can’t, I’ll leave it alone and shut up about it. But until then, I’m not gonna shut up about it,” Flynn said. “And I get there are city ordinances. I just think this one went a little too far.”
An Interact for Health Foundation report published a few years ago showed 73% of voters in northern Kentucky support strong smoke free laws.
A portion of Dayton’s ordinance reads:
“The Dayton city council believes that this ordinance is needed to protect the public health and welfare by prohibiting smoking in public places and places of employment, guarantee the rights of all residents and visitors to breathe smoke-free air, and recognize that the need to breathe smoke-free air shall have priority and override the desire to smoke in all places of employment and public places in the city of Dayton.”
City Council member Joe Neary wrote on Facebook, “This City Council and Administration have been working for months to craft an ordinance that can be enforced and is fair. Early drafts were extremely limiting, but the final ordinance is much looser than most smoke-free ordinances around the country.”
He went on to say: “While I didn’t agree with some aspects of the ordinance, and voted against it, it’s now my job to respect and support the majority decision of our City Council.”
Flynn’s Rose Room doesn’t have a patio. Flynn said if people can’t smoke in her bar, they’ll go somewhere they can, like private clubs.
“It means I’m done. You’ll have another empty building sitting here in Dayton,” she said. “But as long as I own it, and pay property taxes, I should be allowed to do what I want in my business.”
Spectrum News 1 reached out to each member of Dayton City Council and the city’s mayor for comment on this story. They have not responded to requests.