Small Business Legislative Testimony

OSBC testimony given to the Tobacco Settlement Task Force on May 27, 1999 Mr. Chairman, President Finan, Speaker Davidson, Attorney General Montgomery, Representative Ford, and other distinguished members of the task force committee: Good morning. My name is Kathy Lowrey. I am a member of the Ohio Small Business Council Board of Governors, a small business owner, and a master's prepared occupational health nurse. My family is a victim of death due lung cancer from cigarette smoking. Eleven years ago, at age 52, my mother died when I was seven months pregnant with my first child. This loss of my mother, my best friend, compels me to want to speak out on behalf of this deadly addiction and prevent needless loss of life for others. The Ohio Small Business Council (OSBC) is a division of the Ohio Chamber of Commerce. This Council is governed by twenty-one small business owners and operators from throughout Ohio. The membership of OSBC includes approximately 4300 small businesses, each employing 250 or fewer people. This group indirectly represents the interests of the 1/4 million small businesses throughout the State of Ohio. It is especially interesting to note that 97 percent of all Ohio businesses have 100 or fewer employees, while 80 percent have twenty-five or fewer. These businesses employ more than half of our state's private sector workforce with an annual payroll of more than $45 billion. These are the businesses in which 70 percent of those entering the workforce get their first jobs, and these are the same businesses that are creating the majority of Ohio's new jobs. My small business is Buckeye Sports and Orthopedic Specialists, an orthopedic surgery group serving Fairfield, Hocking, and Franklin counties. We have three subspecialty trained orthopedic surgeons, and 20 staff. My husband, Chuck, and I started this business in 1994. I am also a nurse. My professional training is in community health with an emphasis on caring for people at the workplace as an occupational health nurse. My experiences in this setting have been with medium and large businesses in California, Texas, and New Mexico. Since moving to Ohio in 1993, my priority has been establishing and developing my own small business. I am overwhelmed with pleasure, and really appreciate the opportunity, to be able to speak to you today on behalf of the Ohio Small Business Council. Today you are witnessing the business and the healthcare communities standing shoulder to shoulder, pulling together, to try and make good things happen for the people we care about, the employees that make up the backbone of Ohio's economy, Ohio's small business workers. The OSBC and I want to publicly support and applaud the work of the Coalition for Healthier Ohio. We believe that at least 1/3 of Ohio's tobacco settlement money should be spent on smoking cessation programs. We also support spending at least 25 percent of this money on community-based programs which we recommend includes an emphasis on interventions at the workplace. Other sites recommended for community intervention includes homes, schools, places of worship, entertainment venues, and civic organizations. As you know, an essential part of this plan, the "Blueprint for a Tobacco Free Ohio," includes public health policies that encourage tobacco free community norms such as smoke free workplaces, and providing assistance and incentives to businesses that choose to implement these smoke free workplaces. We believe that choice and incentives are critical components of both successful smoking cessation programs and smoke-free workplaces. We would like to see comprehensive, sustainable, and accountable tobacco prevention and control programs initiated at work. Funding provided to establish work-site smoking cessation programs will be utilized and will be very much appreciated. This is especially important because the segment of the business population I represent is unlikely to have access to occupational health nurses nor are they likely to have financial resources to implement these programs on their own. Intervention at the workplace can be especially effective due to the amount of time spent there and the commonplace social support usually cultivated at work. The benefits of helping workers stop smoking are many. As smokers quit smoking, we can expect to see reduced absenteeism, potential savings on employer's health care premiums, and a conservative savings estimate for each non-smoking employee of $1000 per employee. Smoke free workplaces are also good for morale and building employee loyalty. In a report conducted by the Ohio Department of Health in 1995, 83 percent of Ohio adults polled believed that workplaces should have policies that restrict smoking. OSBC believes these programs should not be governed or mandated by regulations but should be driven by free choice. Employers with 100 or fewer employees, or 97 percent of Ohio's businesses, need maximal support in helping their employees stop smoking. Successful smoking prevention, as well as reduction and cessation programming at the workplace will produce substantial savings to the employer as well as the taxpayer. More importantly, these programs will help save lives and improve the overall quality of life at work and at home. Thank you for the opportunity to present our testimony today. I respectfully request that you specify in your recommendations to Governor Taft the importance and effectiveness of funding smoking prevention and cessation programming in the workplace. Thank you. This completes my testimony. I would be pleased to answer any questions at this time as I may need to leave prior to the close of this session. Respectfully,Kathy Lowrey, R.N., M.S.N. Ohio Small Business Council, Board of Governors