Kansas Health Institute | Information For Policy Makers. Health for Kansans.

TOPEKA — Cities and businesses are preparing for the July 1 start of a statewide smoking ban.

Before Gov. Mark Parkinson approved the new law in March, at least 36 Kansas cities had approved some form of public smoking restrictions.

“All of our cities that have smoking bans are looking at their ordinances to see what provisions will be enforceable, and what provisions might be more lenient than the state law and therefore unenforceable,” said Sandy Jacquot, general counsel for the League of Kansas Municipalities.

The Kansas Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that state statutes set a “floor, not a ceiling” for local ordinances. In other words, cities may pass their own ordinances that are more stringent than state law.

Lawrence city commissioners tonight are considering revising their ordinance.

The city was the first in the state to ban smoking in most public places, including bars, restaurants, and private clubs. The new state law, however, allows private clubs in business before Jan. 1, 2009, to opt out of the law.

City commissioners have indicated that they would like to keep Lawrence’s tighter restrictions intact, said Toni Wheeler, director of the city’s legal services department, when it begins enforcing the new state law.

Provisions stricter than the state law are a ban on smoking on gaming floors, fire department authority to enforce the ordinance, and a definition of smoking that includes “non-tobacco vegetation.”

The city’s current ordinance does not address the distance one must stand from a door or window to smoke. The state law, however, prohibits smoking within 10 feet of those “access points.” The new, proposed city ordinance would adopt the 10-feet rule.

The proposed ordinance would also change from 25 percent to 20 percent the number of hotel rooms that may be designated as smoking in accordance with the state law.

The new ordinance would go into effect before July 1, if adopted as expected, Wheeler said. It will be subject to a first reading tonight and a second reading at the commission’s June 22 meeting, when a vote is expected to be taken.

In Wichita, the city faces a different issue.

“The state law will render our ordinance ineffective,” said Kurt Schroeder, the city’s director of central inspection.

Wichita’s smoking ordinance, approved in 2008, allows businesses that prohibit minors to purchase a license for indoor smoking. About 200 businesses, mostly bars, taverns and a few restaurants, had purchased the permits, Schroeder said.

After July 1, smoking will no longer be allowed in those businesses.

“Our plan, obviously, is to abide by the state law,” he said. “All of those businesses are probably pretty aware that, come July 1, they can’t be smoking (establishments) anymore.”

The Wichita ordinance also allowed businesses that constructed separately ventilated indoor rooms to be smoking areas. About eight businesses had taken that step, Schroeder said.

The new state law prohibits businesses from constructing separately ventilated smoking areas.

The city’s inspection department was prepared for “hundreds” of complaints about violations of the city’s smoking ordinance after it went into effect, Schroeder said.

Instead, they had a few dozen. Most were about signage.

“People corrected those as soon as we’d get out there,” he said.

Paula Clayton, director of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment’s Bureau of Health Promotion, said KDHE staff members have been busy responding to requests for information and resources in the weeks leading up to the July 1 implementation date.

The new law allows smoking to continue at Class A and B private clubs that notify the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. About one-third of the approximately 400 eligible clubs have notified KDHE that they’d like to continue to allow smoking in their businesses, Clayton said.

The transition to the new law so far seems to be smooth for cities and businesses, Clayton said.

“We have so many communities that have already gone smoke-free at the local level that this isn’t an unusual action,” she said. “We are assisting local communities with whatever their needs are.”

The top request, she said, is for “no smoking” signs that meet the letter of the new law. KDHE has a sign available for download on its smoking ban question-and-answer website, www.kssmokefree.org.

The American Cancer Society and others are providing funding for brochures and other materials that businesses and cities can request from KDHE.

“In most places, whether it’s a local ordinance or state law, there may be some initial enforcement issues,” said Chris Masoner, government relations director for the Kansas office of the cancer society. “It doesn’t take long for people to settle in and understand the law and comply with it. We’re really pretty focused right now on making sure things go smoothly at the outset.”