Most folks want a smokefree Mankato

Good news for those who want to go to Mankato bars and restaurants and don't want to breathe smokers' effluent. Apparently most Mankato bar and restaurant owners who before July 1 allowed smoking have decided not to fight the ban, which will go to the city's voters in the form of a referendum in November. The question is: Will Big Tobacco try to influence the vote?

Stay tuned.

Poll: Hefty support for ban
MPAAT says air is 86 percent cleaner

By Dan Linehan
The Free Press

MANKATO — The smoking ban has made the air in Mankato's bars and restaurants 86 percent cleaner, and most voters would like to keep the new law in place, according to an air quality study and poll funded by the Minnesota Partnership for Action Against Tobacco.

MPAAT, a nonprofit formed with proceeds from the state's tobacco settlement in 1998, surveyed 5,500 Mankato voters by phone on Aug. 1 and 2. It found that 58.4 percent of respondents wanted to keep the law, 19.3 percent wanted to repeal it and the final 22.1 percent didn't answer or were undecided.

(The rest is here.)