February 6, 2007 7:34 AM

It's about damn time

Ellis wants to make all of Texas smoke-free

MY NEW HERO #61: TX Sen. Rodney Ellis (D- Houston)

AUSTIN ‚Äö√Ñ√Æ In a proposal that could keep Houston smokers from dodging the city’s tougher public smoking ordinance by patronizing bars and restaurants outside the city limits, state Sen. Rodney Ellis is proposing a statewide ban….”A broad array of cities in Texas have stepped up and shown leadership on this issue,” said Ellis, D-Houston. “In my judgment you have to make this a public awareness campaign. Members aren’t champing at the bit to vote on this. They will feel as much pressure to vote on it from constituents as they will financial pressure from lobbyists and commercial establishments to vote against it.”….Fourteen Texas cities are smoke-free, and 47 have passed some type of limit on public smoking, including Houston, where a smoking ban will be expanded to bars in September.

Smokers will piss and moan and whine about being legislated out of existence, and while I can’t say that I’m completely insensitive to their feelings, I’m fighting the urge to give Sen. Ellis a big, wet, sloppy kiss (metaphorically speaking, of course). In today’s increasingly-unfriendly environment for smokers, perhaps they’ll get a clue and stop gradually killing themselves…or exposing the rest of us to their toxic second-hand smoke. Perhaps they’ll come to their senses and realize that their habit is merely slow suicide. Perhaps they’ll realize the burden their habit and the resulting health care costs place on an already inefficient and overburdened system.

Yeah, like that’s going to happen….

The reality is that public opinion has been turning against smokers for years now. People no longer want to be assaulted by second-hand smoke. They no longer want to go to a restaurant or a bar and smell like cigarette smoke when they leave. It’s about time that people and the government who represents us recognize the right of nonsmokers to breath, clean, non-tobaccofied air. Clean, breathable air isn’t just a good idea. It should be the law.

When Houston passed the tougher ordinance in October, Mayor Bill White said he hoped the county and state would consider bans. Before the vote on the tougher city ordinance, Houston restaurant and bar owners had complained that they might lose smokers’ business to restaurants outside the city.

Sixteen states have comprehensive smoke-free laws that prohibit smoking in all workplaces, restaurants and bars.

“We are one of those states that would be a tipping point,” Ellis said. “If you fight this battle in Texas, it helps make the case elsewhere.”

Sixty-six percent of Texans favor making the state’s workplaces, restaurants and bars smoke-free, according to a survey conducted by pollster Mike Baselice earlier this month on behalf of “Smoke-Free Texas,” which is advocating the legislation.

We’ve had this debate before here at TPRS, and I still feel the same way. My desire is not to oppress smokers, merely to make the practice of their habit something that will not adversely impact the health of non-smokers. Sen. Ellis ought to be roundly applauded for working to make Texas as smoking-unfriendly as can reasonably be done in the current political climate.

If you’re going to get on my case about flaws in my logic, don’t bother. This is a highly emotional issue for me, one that I am in no mood to compromise on. If you can smoke without polluting the air I breathe, then knock yourself out. However, if I end up inhaling your second-hand smoke, we’re going to have issues, and I’ll stop at nothing to prevent you from polluting the air I have to breathe in order to live.

It will be a great day when I can go to a bar and leave without smelling like cigarettes, because the smoking section is somewhere in Hidalgo County.

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on February 6, 2007 7:34 AM.

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