Shreveport, Louisiana recently passed its Comprehensive Smoke-Free Policy, leaving Lake Charles the state’s last major city that permits smoking in casinos and bars.
“We’re the last holdout,” said John O’Donnell, of the Louisiana Healthy Communities Coalition. “We’re the last city in one of the last states to be able to expose workers to secondhand smoke that they don’t ask for. We want to protect all people from the decisions of a few people.”
Brian Burton, CEO of the Southwest Louisiana Area Health Education Center, said Lake Charles already operates under the Louisiana Smoke-Free Air Act—but exempts casinos and bars. “What municipalities and cities have done is gone and make it stronger by making comprehensive policies that include bars and casinos,” Burton said.
In a statement, Lake Charles city officials said, “We are open to discussing a proposal of this nature. This is something the administration would like to see discussed on a regional level versus just a single municipality.”
However, the Calcasieu Parish Police Jury said if the Comprehensive Smoke-Free Policy were implemented, they would “only apply to unincorporated areas of the parish.”
Hydee Veillon, owner of Cajun’s Wharf Grill and Bar, unequivocally stated, “We are absolutely 100 percent opposed to (a smoking ban), simply because of our clientele. And it is a bar.”
