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Poll: 70 percent of EBR voters in favor of extending workplace smoking ban

8 years 2 months 13 hours ago Tuesday, January 26 2016 Jan 26, 2016 January 26, 2016 6:16 PM January 26, 2016 in Health
Source: WBRZ
By: Brock Sues

BATON ROUGE - Local, state and national public health groups have released the results of polls that show 70 percent of East Baton Rouge Parish voters are in favor of extending the statewide smoke-free policy to all workplaces, including bars and casinos.

“Voters throughout East Baton Rouge Parish and across party lines strongly support extending the smoke-free policy to all workplaces,” said Jim Hobart, vice president of Public Opinion Strategies. “Voters are more likely to go out to bars and casinos if the smoke-free law is extended, and are also more likely to support a candidate who backs the smoke-free law extension.”

The poll was commissioned by the Healthier Air For All campaign, the secondhand smoke campaign of the Louisiana Campaign for Tobacco-Free Living and the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. The survey was conducted via telephone and sampled 500 registered voters in EBR Parish.

The results indicate support is strong for a more inclusive smoke-free ordinance that extends current policy to include all workplaces. The poll indicates seven out of ten voters are in favor of this push to add more places of employment to the smoking ban.

“No one should have to choose between their health and a paycheck,” said Tonia Moore, Associate Director of TFL. “Ensuring all workplaces are smoke-free parish-wide is an efficient way to solve a serious public health problem, and it seems to resonate with East Baton Rouge voters to move in a healthier direction.”

Anti-smoking advocates say service industry and gaming facility employees breathe more secondhand smoke at work than any other type of employee with an estimated 3,000 East Baton Rouge Parish employees currently being exposed to the toxins present in secondhand smoke.

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