By Laura Spencer
Kansas City, MO – Smoke-free ordinances go into effect for four more cities in the metropolitan area on January 2, 2008. Overland Park, Leawood, Lenexa, and Shawnee bring the total up to nearly a dozen cities either eliminating or restricting public exposure to second-hand smoke. Leon Vinci is the director of public health for the Johnson County Health Department and calls it a positive public health step.
Leon Vinci: "And that translates to not only a large percentage of our overall county community, and I'm saying almost as high as 90 percent of our county is covered with clean indoor air opportunities."
Two cities in the metropolitan area -- Kansas City, Missouri and Prairie Village, Kansas - have passed no smoking ordinances including a delay clause for restaurants and bars until a certain percentage of other cities have adopted similar bans. Enough petition signatures were collected in December in Kansas City to put a proposal on the April ballot to ban smoking in restaurants and bars immediately.