Only 24.5 percent of St. Louis City residents support a smoking ban!

Got this letter published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch today!

Slim support

The editorial "Smoking gun" (Jan. 12) called upon Missouri to adopt a strict smoking ban "modeled on the one in Illinois." The paper and urged St. Louis "to lead the way."

Do St. Louisans want a smoking ban? A 2007 survey by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services found that only 24.5 percent of St. Louis City residents favor banning smoking in bars and cocktail lounges. Support for such a ban in St. Louis County is only slightly stronger at 30 percent, and a ban on smoking in bars is favored by only 27.5 percent of Missourians overall. These local numbers line up with the latest Gallup Poll, which found that only 29 percent of Americans support a smoking ban in bars. This is pretty slim popular support for such a Draconian restriction of freedom and property rights.

Bill Hannegan St. Louis County

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/editorialcommentary/story/20AE71D6D37BDC33862573D500073C4E?OpenDocument