Des Moines, Iowa — A coalition of groups is celebrating the 15th anniversary of the state law that banned smoking in most public places and urging lawmakers to do more.
Threase Harms of the Iowa Tobacco Prevention Alliance says the Iowa Smoke-free Act has helped thousands of Iowans quit smoking.
Representatives from the American Lung Association, the American Cancer Society, and the American Heart Association were at the Iowa Capitol yesterday (Tuesday). The coalition is calling on lawmakers to increase the state tax on tobacco products and close a loophole that allows smoking on the gaming floors at the state’s casinos. The group also wants e-cigarette use banned in the same places where it’s not legal to smoke a cigarette or a cigar. Harms said it’s surreal to remember what public places were like before the law.
In the 1980s, former Governor Terry Branstad declared his office space and public areas in the Iowa Capitol as smoke-free zones. He also ordered the removal of a cigarette vending machine on the Capitol’s publicly-accessible ground floor. Branstad credits his wife, Chris, for taking the ashtrays out of their home in Lake Mills as well as the governor’s mansion in Des Moines.
Former Governor Chet Culver signed the Iowa Smoke-free Air Act in 2008 after it narrowly passed the Iowa Legislature.
