The American Association of Retired Persons is throwing its support behind the growing Smoke-free East Baton Rouge movement. At a press conference this afternoon, representatives of AARP, as well as local musicians Kenny Neal and Michael Foster, announced their support for the effort, which seeks to ban smoking in bars and casinos.
The joint announcement came just 90 minutes after Lydia Kuykendal, a leader of Smoke-free EBR and lobbyist for the American Cancer Society Action Network, addressed the Baton Rouge Rotary Club about the importance of supporting the effort. The timing of the two outreach efforts suggests the campaign to make East Baton Rouge Parish smoke free is intensifying, and organizers say they hope to bring legislation to the Metro Council sooner rather than later.
“Because the state is unwilling to act, municipalities have been doing it themselves,” Kuykendal says. “This has become a trend not just nationwide but here in Louisiana.”
In 2007, the Louisiana Legislature banned smoking in all public buildings and restaurants. But bars and gambling facilities were exempted. Kyukendal says the exemption is bad public policy and is unfair to the thousands of bar and casino workers who are exposed to secondhand smoke while on the job.
“Workers should not be required to inhale a toxic substance as a condition of employment,” she says.
In the years since the law was passed, several cities across the state, including New Orleans, have passed their own laws banning smoking in bars and gambling facilities. Many major cities in the U.S. have also gone completely smoke free.
Harrah’s Casino in New Orleans vehemently opposed the ban and has blamed it on a decrease in revenues. But Kuykendal says it’s impossible to know whether the smoking ban was actually the cause of Harrah’s $12 million revenue decline during the second half of 2015.
“Lots of factors affect casino revenues,” she says.
Baton Rouge’s three riverboat casinos are expected to oppose the ban as well. Calls for comment were not returned in time for publication today. But leaders of the Smoke-free movement say today’s endorsement by AARP sends a clear signal to the gambling industry that even older adults who make up a large part of their target market support the smoking ban.
—Stephanie Riegel
