Fairbanks, AK - A well-known Fairbanks restaurant has agreed to go smoke free in partnership with the Tanana Chiefs Conference. In an email announcement, Pikes Landing Owner and Executive Chef Jeffrey Brook said he “made the decision because guests asked [him] to.” He was unavailable for comment, which likely had something to do with the free deserts the restaurant gave out in celebration of the change.
Melanie Brenner is the Tobacco Prevention Coordinator at Tanana Chiefs Conference. She helped Pike’s move forward with the decision. “We just helped with support," she says, "and we provided them with sample policies, implementation plans, and we also provided them with presentations to their staff and to the managers at their meetings.”
Brenner says TCC is working beyond the Golden Heart City to establish smoke-free workplaces in interior villages.
“In Nulato they have a tribal policy there which protects for all tribal buildings and protects for any events happening," she says. "In Galena, they passed a policy for any of the TCC properties to be smoke free. And in Nenana they just passed a policy for all of their tribal offices go tobacco free.”
In 2011, the Alaska Federation of Natives unanimously passed a resolution in support of statewide smoke free workplaces.
There is no statewide law regarding tobacco use in the work place. In 2010, Petersburg voters went to the polls to ban smoking from restaurants and bars. Last September, smoking indoors was banned in Nome. In Fairbanks, the Oasis, known for it's burgers, went smoke free last year. The Tanana Valley state Fair made the move this summer.