Members of the community gathered yesterday to honor smoke-free restaurants and promote the importance of a smoke-free environment.

The Centre County Tobacco Prevention Coalition (CCTPC) honored 26 restaurants that provide smoke-free dining in Centre County during a breakfast at the Ramada Inn, 1450 S. Atherton St.

Destiny Myers said the breakfast showed that local businesses recognize the importance of a smoke-free environment for their customers.

Myers is the outreach director of the American Lung Association.

The breakfast, part of the CCTPC's Smoke-Free Dining Campaign sponsored by the American Cancer Society and the American Lung Association of Pennsylvania, also showcased the first guide to smoke-free dining.

"We hope the guide will provide restaurants that are thinking about it (smoke-free dining) with ideas and references," said Al Snider, member of the CCTPC.

CCTPC sent out more than 200 surveys to Centre County eating establishments during the first stage of their campaign to measure smoking policies at area restaurants. The breakfast was the second part of a three-step campaign.

Speaking at the breakfast was Lauri Perman, assistant Dean of the Schreyer Honors College and an American Lung Association Board Member. Perman comes from a family that has suffered from asthma for three generations.

She described having asthma as having one cement block on the chest and one on the back. It's a feeling of not having any air, she said.

"My family went out to dinner one time and was placed in the back of the smoking section," Perman said. "While the restaurant kept their promise to not have anyone smoking around us, I wondered how we would survive walking past all the smokers."

Smoke free environments are an important public health initiative, Perman said. Most people concentrate on consumers, but it also effects the well-being of employees. According to a pamphlet on smoke-free dining from the American Lung Association, workers who are exposed to environmental tobacco smoke on the job are 34 percent more likely to get lung cancer.

Each restaurant received a plaque in recognition of their commitment to a smoke-free cause. Present at the breakfast were downtown business managers of the Daily Grind, 107 E. Beaver Ave., and McDonald's, 442 E. College Ave.

"Part of our decision was made by the standpoint that we care about kids," said Tom Stark, manager of the State College area McDonald's restaurants. "We owe it to everyone not to sit there and have to inhale smoke – whether you're a non-smoker or a smoker."

The CCTPC works to eliminate the dangers of secondhand smoke exposure in the community and provides support to businesses that would like to modify smoking policies in their establishments.

"Someday we would like to be like California in regards to its smoking policy," Snider said. "Hopefully seeing the guide will energize local businesses."

The campaign will end with the participation of four county school districts in the Secondhand Smoke Drawing Contest. Students who are being taught about secondhand smoke will draw pictures for the contest. The winning drawings will be used on place mats to be used in local restaurants on Kick Butts Day, April 4.

Business interested in information on the implementation of smoke-free dining can contact the CCTPC at 238-8908.