Case Studies
Local Comprehensive Clean Indoor Air Ordinance in
Texas
Planning
Was a needs
assessment completed?
No
Approach Used
N/A
Planning Models Used
The
coalition relied on models developed and published by
Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights (ANR) Clearing the Air:
Citizen Action Guide and CDC’s Best Practices for
Comprehensive Tobacco Control to develop a clean indoor
air campaign. In 2000, members of the coalition attended
the CDC’s Summer Institute course on Clean Indoor Air.
It should be noted that the coalition’s original plan
was to conduct a 2-year campaign—beginning with a
comprehensive community education campaign, followed by
a grassroots mobilization and media advocacy campaign
once the ordinance was introduced. In September 2000,
the El Paso City/County Health and Environmental
District announced that it intended to consider an
ordinance in October effectively scrapped.
The coalition quickly established a smaller ordinance
task force, a core team to direct the day-to-day
operations of the campaign (about 10 – 15 members). The
task force began with a two month crash course to
educate itself, dividing into research subcommittees
that regularly reported back to one another. Task force
members gathered information on the key issues they
expected to be raised during the campaign (e.g., health
effects, economic impact, experience in other cities,
countering opposition tactics, etc.), assembling a
binder of materials that was eventually provided to all
city council members. The task force also researched
local government issues (e.g., history of current
ordinance, city charter, roles of city staff including
the city manager, attorney, and clerk, members’ voting
records, etc.).
The coalition sought information and technical
assistance from ANR, the CDC, the Texas State Department
of Health, the Tobacco-Free Las Cruces (NM) Coalition,
the voluntary health agencies, as well as other local
coalitions across the country with experience passing
local smoke-free ordinances. In March of 2001, ordinance
task force members attended an ANR "Back to Basics"
ordinance training, and in April of 2001, Lawrence
Banegas of the New Mexico Department of Health conducted
training on "Mobilizing the Community."
The task force developed a strategic plan to guide their
campaign, drawing from their research and training.
Because of the short time frame, community education and
mobilization activities were almost simultaneous.
Planning Notes
During the
early phases of the campaign, coalition members
discussed what provisions to include in the ordinance.
The coalition decided after discussion and debate to
draft a comprehensive ordinance creating full protection
from secondhand smoke in ALL workplaces, which meant
including free-standing bars. Although including
free-standing bars was a radical idea for its time,
the coalition considered it vital to promote a
comprehensive workplace ordinance for two reasons.
First, El Paso is a relatively poor community, with a
large number of blue collar and hospitality workplaces –
the types of workplaces least likely to voluntarily
protect workers from secondhand smoke. Second, a large
percentage of El Paso’s restaurant and bar workers are
recent immigrants from Mexico; they are unlikely to know
about the dangers of secondhand smoke, much less ask for
protection.
The coalition countered criticism of the free-standing
bar provisions by staying on message that secondhand
smoke is a health hazard that affects all workers, and
all workers deserve protection. The coalition also
pointed out that a comprehensive ordinance creates a
level playing field; exempting some workplaces but not
others might offer an unfair competitive advantage to
the free-standing bars over restaurants and bars
attached to restaurants.
Publicly, the coalition never wavered from this
position. Privately, the coalition understood that local
elected officials might seek political compromises, and
reached agreement about their bottom-line requirements
(i.e., at what point they would withdraw support for the
ordinance, preferring nothing to pass rather than a
seriously compromised ordinance riddled with
exemptions). The ordinance’s sponsor held fast to the
coalition’s vision of a comprehensive workplace
ordinance to protect all workers—his motto of "no
compromise" ultimately prevailed.
Page last modified 07/25/2007
= Link to a PDF document
= Link to nonfederal Web site