Man Suffers Fatal Coronary After Testifying that Risk from Tobacco Smoke is "Baloney"

"I sat at a table of smokers every morning... and it hasn't bothered my health any."

Parts excerpted from Anchorage Daily News, November 26, 2003, smokefree.net

HOMER, AK -- A local businessman who had just finished testifying against a proposed smokefree ordinance collapsed with a heart attack in the council chambers and could not be revived.

Robert Keys, a former smoker, told a packed city council meeting that he sat at a table of smokers every morning for coffee and conversation at a local restaurant without trouble.  "It hasn't bothered my health any," Keys testified.  In fact Keys, a veteran, said he'd just had an echocardiogram about six weeks ago at the hospital at Elmendorf Air Force Base.  "They told me I had the heart of a very young person. So I think all this baloney about tobacco smoke affecting people's health is just that. Baloney."

Keys returned to his seat in the council chambers. Less than five minutes later, gasping noises from Keys interrupted further testimony. The room was cleared and emergency help summoned.

Among those at the meeting were the city fire chief, head EMT, and a doctor.  Attempts to resuscitate Keys en route to the hospital were unsuccessful. He was pronounced dead of cardiac arrest in the emergency room at South Peninsula Hospital, Homer Fire Chief Bob Painter said.

The council meeting was recessed until next week.

Keys told the council he had started smoking when he was 8 and quit when he was 35.  Keys was active in local government affairs. Several years ago, he ran unsuccessfully for the city council.

"Bob actively voiced his concerns for city government over the years. He was strong in his beliefs," said Mayor Jack Cushing, who was chairing the meeting.

The council recessed Monday before it ever got around to introducing the controversial smokefree ordinance. Cushing estimated that at least 30 people had come to testify about the measure. It is scheduled to be taken up with other council business when the meeting resumes on Monday.

"It's a shocking, horrible tragedy," said Annette Marley, who attended Monday's meeting for the Homer Alliance for Fresh Air. "We can't make a causal relationship between his being around smokers and his death, but we know you have a 30 percent higher risk of dying of chronic heart disease if you're a nonsmoker exposed to smoke in the workplace."