Restaurant Owner Goes Smoke-Free After Seeing Ad About Ailing Waitress

Restaurant Owner Goes Smoke-Free After Seeing Ad About Ailing Waitress

Dying Woman's Story Has Impacted Minnesotans' Desire for Smoke-Free Workplaces

MINNEAPOLIS, March 8 /PRNewswire/ -- A television commercial featuring a waitress suffering from lung cancer because of secondhand smoke exposure inspired an Alexandria-area restaurant owner to voluntarily make her business smoke-free. The restaurant owner called the commercial "the final straw" in her decision to provide her employees a healthier workplace, and said she has no regrets.

"I knew that going smoke-free might be a risk for my business, but I couldn't stop thinking about the harmful chemicals from tobacco smoke that my employees were being exposed to day in and day out," said Judy Thornbloom, owner of AJ's Cafe in Osakis, Minn. "When I saw the commercial about the waitress who is dying from cancer she got by working in a smoky restaurant, I knew that putting my employees in that same danger was the bigger risk. Fortunately, my decision led to a healthier workplace and an increase in business. My staff and customers love the smoke-free environment - and so do I!"

Since November, the Minnesota Partnership for Action Against Tobacco has aired a commercial statewide about Heather Crowe, a 60-year-old Canadian woman who never smoked a day in her life, but spent her entire career working as a waitress in a smoke-filled establishment and is now dying from cancer. The ad was developed and originally aired in Canada in the fall of 2002 as part of a mass media campaign sponsored by Health Canada.

The public's broad concern for Crowe's story encouraged her to launch her own campaign to create smoke-free workplace laws throughout Canada. Her work has led to widespread changes to Canadian labor laws that now better protect workers from secondhand smoke.

Thornbloom said that in addition to a healthier work environment, her decision may help a few of her employees who smoke try to quit. "Since we've been smoke-free, they've already substantially cut back on their smoking," she said.

Despite the growing number of bars and restaurants going smoke-free, Minnesota's hospitality employees still have significantly less protection from secondhand smoke exposure than most other Minnesota workers. According to the 2003 Minnesota Adult Tobacco Survey, 89 percent of Minnesotans who work in offices reported that they are protected by smoke-free policies. That is in stark contrast to the only 5 percent of bar workers who report working in a smoke-free environment.

A statement issued in recent weeks by Physicians for a Smoke-free Canada announced that Crowe was admitted into palliative care in Ottawa, Canada.

For more information on Heather Crowe's story visit: http://www.smoke-free.ca/heathercrowe/heathers-story.htm

MPAAT is an independent, non-profit organization that improves the health of Minnesotans by reducing the harm caused by tobacco. MPAAT serves Minnesota through its grant-making program, QUITPLAN(SM) stop-smoking services and statewide outreach activities. It is funded with three percent of the State's 1998 tobacco settlement.

Source: Minnesota Partnership for Action Against Tobacco

CONTACT: Kerri Gordon, Public Relations Manager, for MPAAT,
+1-952-767-1403

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