A Push for a Smoke Free Community

A group in Ocean Springs is working to convince city leaders to make the community smoke free. News 25’s Kendra Turley shows us more on the coalition’s effort for a cleaner environment.
A push for a fresh-air environment is the goal for a group of residents in Ocean Springs eager for a smoke free city. Grassroots Outreach Coordinator Laurie Johnson said, “We had an independent polling organization come in and they polled Ocean Springs residents who were registered voters and overwhelmingly Ocean Springs residents are in support of a smoke free Ocean Springs.”
At the moment, there are 129 smoke free communities in the state of Mississippi. Johnson, along with the American Cancer Society and other organizations, started a petition to enforce a smoke free policy in all public and commercial buildings in Ocean Springs.
Plenty of bars and businesses in downtown Ocean Springs already enforce a smoke free policy. However, business owners still feel it should be their decision to make that call and not the city’s decision. Mosaics Owner Arturo Barajas said, “We do have a lot of customers that smoke, you know. Why limit them to come here, to come to the city period if they cannot be themselves?”
Ocean Springs resident Bob Dominguez believes enforcing a smoking ban will hurt the increased tourism and nightlife the city worked so hard to expand. “They’ve allowed people to carry drinks from place to place and those things, but then coming back and saying no smoking I don’t think necessarily helps the agenda.”
However, Johnson says this isn’t just a tourism or an economical issue, it’s a public health issue for all residents. “Their risk to the levels of second-hand smoke that are very damaging to individuals, to their health, and it really costs businesses more money than they realize.”
The coalition plans to meet on the last Wednesday of each month until Ocean Springs residents can breathe a little easier.