February 20, 2005 7:46 AM

Like it or not, it's the wave of the future

NO SMOKING: Tobacco smoke is a greater danger to air quality than industry. Houston needs an effective ordinance that bans smoking in all restaurants and their bar areas.

Not at my table: Why a restaurateur banned smoking and why Houston should, too

For me, it comes down to an important question that I think needs asking: Why should our culture accommodate an addiction that contaminates, produces discomfort and creates serious illnesses and could possibly lead to premature death to others? Why do we continue to condone this?

One of the biggest threats to public health is indoor pollution. The biggest cause of indoor pollution is cigarette smoke. Given that reality, it should stand to reason that smoking in public places such as bars and restaurants should be banned. Why do you think smoking has been banned on airplanes? For those of us who prefer our air unclouded by the multiple chemicals produced by cigarettes, we should be able to enjoy an evening out without being subjected to someone else’s second-hand smoke.

Houston is at least entertaining the possibility of enacting an anti-smoking ordinance, though my suspicion is that by the time it becomes law, it will be so watered down as to be meaningless. Still, something is better than nothing, even if it is not the complete ban on cigarettes that some of us would prefer.

The last time the subject came up, Mayor Bill White said he could support a revised anti-smoking ordinance only if it made incremental improvements over time. Unfortunately, his administration’s proposed amendment to Houston’s anti-smoking ordinance does not offer significant improvement for this city’s restaurant patrons and workers.

Mayor White has taken a stern tone with industries that pollute the atmosphere. It makes no sense to reduce toxic emissions outside and allow public areas indoors, where Houstonians spend most of their time, to be polluted with tobacco smoke, America’s original weapon of mass destruction.

Allowing smoking in restaurant bar areas is just as bad as allowing it in designated areas of the dining room. The nature of gases and suspended particulate results in an even distribution of tobacco smoke’s poisons throughout the premises.

Research has proved that ventilation and barriers don’t work. Anti-smoking groups √≥ including the nation’s societies devoted to fighting cancer, heart and lung disease √≥ point to the telling refusal of ventilator manufacturers to guarantee safe air in rooms equipped with their fans and ducts.

The nature of cigarette smoke is that it does not respect boundaries. Having separate smoking and non-smoking sections does nothing except remove non-smokers from having to sit next to a smoker. If you’re in an enclosed room where people are smoking, you are breathing their secondhand smoke. If I want to eat in a restaurant, I should not have to be forced to inhale secondhand smoke in order to eat there. Not only is it a health risk, but it degrades the experience I went into that establishment hoping to have.

And what about food service workers? These folks are subjected to secondhand smoke as a part of their daily work environment. Are they somehow less deserving of protection from developing cancer due to long-term exposure to secondhand smoke in the workplace?

The issue is one of public health. Secondhand smoke is irritating and unhealthy. It is a leading preventable cause of premature death and respiratory disease, such as childhood asthma.

One medical study found food service workers to be more likely to get lung cancer because of the smoke in their workplace. Ironically, food service workers are unlikely to have health insurance, so the treatment of their acute illnesses falls to taxpayers.

Whether smokers care to admit it or not, the tide is turning against them. If someone could develop a delivery system in which smokers would be exposing only themselves to cigarette smoke, they might have an argument. Until and unless that happens, they will have to deal with the reality of governments, public health officials, and non-smokers trampling on their “right” to smoke. Smokers will continue to be pushed farther toward the margins by governments taking a more activist stand.

Even bar and restaurant owners are beginning to realize that a smoking ban is not necessarily the end of business as they know it. If an establishment is worth frequenting, people will do so. In many cases, smokers have been replaced by non-smokers who frequent the establishment specifically BECAUSE they know they can do so without being assaulted by secondhand smoke.

A growing number of U.S. cities and states have banned smoking in restaurants. Some include free-standing bars in the ban. Fears of lasting economic damage have been replaced by widespread popular support and increased business as smoke-intolerant customers venture forth.

Entire countries √≥ Ireland and Italy √≥ have banned smoking in all indoor public places, including bars and restaurants. It’s still hard to get a good table or seat at the bar in Dublin’s pubs and Rome’s popular wine bars.

Successful bars and restaurants are run by creative businesspeople. Creative people will find a way to succeed. Given the experience in other cities, banning smoking will not kill business. In actuality, those smokers who leave will be replaced by non-smokers and their families who will enjoy being able to relax in a smoke-free environment.

The argument that a smoking ban will kill business is a non-starter. Thankfully, most smokers realize how annoying the smoke they produce is to those around them who do not smoke. They will find a way to adapt to a changing reality. The minority who feel that they should be able to light up anytime, anywhere will have a harder time of it. Really, though, why should a smoker’s right to smoke trump my right to breathe clean air? It would appear that message is finally beginning to take hold in Houston.

Now if the city of Houston and surround municipalities could only find the cojones to deal effectively with the numerous large-scale industrial polluters in the Houston metropolitan area….

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on February 20, 2005 7:46 AM.

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