Health Department, Cancer Society opposes changes to smoking ordinance

Mar. 21—Organizations such as the Green River District Heath Department, the American Cancer Society and the American Lung Association have asked the Owensboro City Commission to not allow smoking at a proposed gambling facility at Towne Square Mall.

Earlier this month, commissioners held a first reading of an ordinance that would allow smoking in a portion of the planned "historic horse racing machines" facility. The facility is being planned by Ellis Enterprises LLC, which is owned by Churchill Downs.

The city has had a all-encompassing smoking ordinance since 2014. The ordinance commissioners are scheduled to consider at Tuesday's meeting would allow for the creation of a separate wing of the gaming facility, with its own ventilation system and "air purification technology" where smoking would be allowed.

The ordinance was written to apply only to facilities "no less than 50,000 contiguous square feet and constructed to be renovated after the effective date of this ordinance with a total investment of no less than $30 million."

Churchill Downs requested a portion of the facility be allowed to accommodate smoking.

Clay Horton, public health director for the Green River District Health Department, said department officials have spoken to commissioners and Mayor Tom Watson.

Horton said department officials have been invited to Tuesday's meeting.

"We are encouraging the city commission to not weaken the local smoking ordinance," Horton said. "We know the local ordinance has been successful; it's popular and it's good public policy."

Air purification technology and attempts to separate nonsmokers from second-hand smoke would be insufficient, Horton said.

Horton cited a 2020 position paper from the American Society for Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers that found: "Even when all practical means of separation and isolation of smoking areas are employed, adverse health effects from exposure in non-smoking spaces in the same building cannot be eliminated."

The organization recommended eliminating all indoor smoking.

Horton said, "Ventilation and different types of filtration may have an effect or benefit in reducing odor or irritation," but that, "it does not remove all of the harmful chemicals from smoke."

Doug Hogan, Kentucky and West Virginia government relations director for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, said allowing smoking at the facility would be harmful to employees, and that, "the Surgeon General has concluded there is no safe exposure to second-hand smoke."

Smoking is not a necessity for gaming facilities, Hogan said.

Hogan cited a study from 2022 report from C3 Gaming, a casino consulting group, that found casinos that banned smoking didn't lose revenue, or customers to casinos were smoking was still permitted. The C3 study also found: "nonsmoking properties appear to be performing better than their counterparts that continue to allow smoking."

Workers drawn to the gaming facility be force to choose between a job and the health concerns surrounding proximity to smoking, Hogan said.

Hogan said, "No one should have to be exposed to toxic second-hand smoke to earn a paycheck.

"It's not good for business health, or the community, to have any exemption to the smoke-free ordinance in Owensboro," Hogan said.

Multiple agencies, including the American Cancer Society, American Heart Association, American Lung Association, the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky, Kentucky Youth Advocates and the Kentucky Nurses Association sent a joint letter to city commissioners opposing the change.

The exemption "would severely weaken this important health law," the letter says. Exempting the Churchill Downs facility would open to the city to lawsuits from other businesses that also want to allow smoking, the letter says.

"In 2007, a Louisville circuit court judge ruled that an exemption allowing indoor smoking at Churchill Downs violated the equal protections provision of the Kentucky Constitution," the letter says. "Louisville enacted a new smoke-free law in 2008 that included Churchill Downs, and the racing venue has been smoke-free indoors ever since. Similarly, Lexington spent more than $330,000 in legal fees related to smoke-free exemptions."

The possibility of other businesses also wanting to allow smoking in Owensboro, if the exemption is approved, is "something obviously to be concerned about," Hogan said.

"We want to make sure that it stays that way, that there are no exemptions," Hogan said.