More smoke-free areas?

Walking into the hall of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 280, it’s hard not to notice the traces of smoking. A discarded pack of Kools and several cigarette butts litter the doorway. A not-so-healthy burst of smoky air greets visitors as soon as they enter.

If Columbia passes a smoking ban, bingo parlors would be included in the ordinance. Ken Mountjoy, the post’s bingo chairman, said that if the smoke clears, the bingo players might go with it.

“We’d lose enough that we would have to give up bingo,” he said. The post, which hosts bingo on Tuesdays, Thursdays and weekends, donates more than $12,000 a year in proceeds to charities, Mountjoy said.

Supporters of the ban, such as Dean Andersen of the MU Student Health Center, say the idea that people will quit playing bingo because of the ban is only a “perception that people have.” He said that before movie theaters, airplanes and coffee shops went smoke-free, people linked those activities with smoking, but their business hasn’t suffered.

“Over 15 states have gone smoke-free,” Andersen said. “In community after community, they’ve seen it doesn’t hurt business. There’s a lot of people who stay away because of the smoke.”

Many players came to the bingo hall with accessories — cushions, bags filled with “dabbers” and even bingo T-shirts. Most players come early to organize their bingo cards, their good-luck charms, their food and their cigarettes. Before the first number is called, at least half the players have begun to fill an ashtray.

Annette Hayes, who smoked Benson & Hedges during her game on Tuesday, said she would continue to play bingo if the smoking ban passes. She predicts few people would quit.

“If they banned it from here, I guess a lot of people would still come,” Hayes said. “Some people are really hooked on bingo like they’re hooked on cigarettes.”

Although she thinks the ban would reduce the number of players, fellow player Lannis Bell also said she would come back. “I may not like it, but I would,” Bell said.

Mountjoy said that after the Isle of Capri casino opened in Boonville in December 2001, bingo attendance took a hit. He estimated that the VFW had 250 to 300 people attend bingo every night before the casino opened; that number has dropped to about 150. If the city goes nonsmoking, he predicts attendance will drop to about 70 per night. At that rate, it wouldn’t be worthwhile to stay open, he said.

Bingo player Paul Robb was also pessimistic about smokers coming back after a ban.

“I think the smokers won’t come,” Robb said. “They can just go to the (casino) and smoke.”

Robb, who smokes, said he wouldn’t come back if the ban passes because smoking is an integral part of bingo.

“It’s a social thing,” he said. “It’s like a total diversion. You come to bingo to forget your problems.”

Andersen said the fact that some people don’t mind smoke is irrelevant because the national government classifies cigarette smoke as a Class A carcinogen, right up there with mercury, lead and asbestos.

“That’s like saying, ‘If most workers don’t mind breathing asbestos, then it’s OK,’” he said.

Bell said she plans to quit smoking within the next year but remains unhappy with the proposed ban.

“It irritates me then, because they’re forcing me,” Bell said. “It ought to be my choice.”

A smoke-filled alley

Bowling alleys also would be included in the ban, even though a large percentage of bowlers smoke. Bill Dejaynes, assistant manager at AMF Bowling Center, estimated about 80 percent of league bowlers and about half of recreational bowlers smoke.

Despite the astounding percentage of smokers in the group, Dejaynes says he thinks league players will continue to bowl because they’ve been bowling at AMF for decades and because the next closest alley is in Fulton. He predicted AMF would lose roughly 10 percent of its business from both recreational and league bowlers.

“People will still come,” he said. “I don’t see a giant hit coming for the leagues.”

James Pearl, a bowler at AMF, said he doesn’t know if he will continue to bowl if the ban passes, but he thinks the alley would lose some business.

“I know one or two people on my winter team that will quit,” Pearl said.

But Dejaynes said the smoking ban is more than a business issue.

“I’m not even a smoker, and I think it’s wrong,” Dejaynes said. “It’s taking more and more of people’s rights away.”

Andersen said he is most concerned with the health of workers. According to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, secondhand smoke kills 1,200 Missourians per year, making it the third-leading cause of preventable death.

“In any other industry, if workers had that level of exposure to carcinogens, we’d be regulating it out of there,” Andersen said.

Pearl said he understands the concern of people with health problems, but he thinks that number is small compared to the number of people who smoke at bowling alleys.

“It’s kind of punishing a large number of people for a small number of people,” Pearl said. “Why can’t we be comfortable when we go places?”

A calming effect

Bingo can be stressful, Bell said, especially when a player is one call away from a winning game.

“That’s when you grab a cigarette,” she said.

In between frames, Pearl said the principle also applies to bowling because it helps him focus.

“When it gets down to the 10th frame and the last bowler is coming up,” Pearl said, “I sit up here, have a smoke and try to calm myself down.”

Pearl said some alleys have nonsmoking hours during nonleague nights, and he wouldn’t mind if AMF did the same thing. He compared it with some restaurants that are smoke-free until late at night, when most families are gone.

Dejaynes said AMF allows smoking only on the upper level of its seating area, not down by the lanes. It uses a ventilation system and ceiling fans to keep most of the smoke out of the air.

The ban is “still a silly idea,” he said, “especially if businesses have a designated smoking area like we have.”

For bingo halls, Bell said she would prefer a separate room, with better ventilation, for nonsmokers. At the VFW hall, every table except for two rows in a corner of the room was equipped with ashtrays. Few players use them.

Bell also said the low ceilings at the VFW building don’t help.

“None of the halls are situated where a nonsmoker would be comfortable,” Bell said. “If you really can’t take it, then stay away.”

Both Hayes and Bell said players can take a smoking break during the hall’s 10-minute intermission, but any other time wouldn’t work.

“You don’t leave a game when you’re playing,” Bell said. “Some people won’t even take their phone calls.”