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Restaurants should go smoke-free in December
Published Wednesday, November 18, 2009
To the editor:
The air is about to clear in Virginia on December 1. Is Suffolk ready?
On Dec. 1, Virginia will implement a new law that restricts smoking but allows restaurants to have separately ventilated smoking rooms. I ask that all restaurants go completely smoke-free, rather than create smoking rooms, so they do not put the health of any employee or customer at risk by subjecting them to hazardous secondhand smoke.
No one should have to put themselves at risk of a heart attack, lung cancer or other serious diseases caused by secondhand smoke in order to earn a paycheck or enjoy a night out. Virginia restaurants should seize the opportunity to protect the health of their workers and customers by going completely smoke-free.
Across the country, a growing number of states and communities have proven that smoke-free laws are very popular with the public, easy to implement and protect health without harming business. It is time for all Virginia restaurants and workplaces to join this movement and go completely smoke-free.
In 2006, the U.S. Surgeon General stated in a groundbreaking report on secondhand smoke, “The debate is over. The science is clear: Secondhand smoke is not a mere annoyance but a serious health hazard that causes premature death and disease in children and nonsmoking adults.”
Secondhand smoke contains more than 4,000 chemicals, including at least 69 carcinogens. The Surgeon General found that secondhand smoke causes heart disease, lung cancer, serious respiratory illnesses such as bronchitis, low birth weight and sudden infant death syndrome.
The Surgeon General also found that secondhand smoke is responsible for tens of thousands of deaths in the U.S. each year.
There is no safe level of exposure and smoke-free laws protect health without harming business.
On Dec. 1, the air will clear in the Old Dominion, and we will continue our efforts to protect the health of more Virginians.
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Comments
Posted by KNRMCO (anonymous) on November 19, 2009 at 7:31 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I don't smoke, & I don't agree with the law going into effect 12/1/09. The gov't is "forcing" us to comply with their demands...what are they going to "force" us to to next? Women must not wear pants? Anyone who has a "cold" must wear a mask? You can't smoke in your own home? No alcohol served in public.... oh wait, we had that & we all know how that went. Trouble is brewing ahead!
Posted by OD (anonymous) on November 19, 2009 at 9:13 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Arlene Zeiler makes a good argument no doubt. First I must say I dont smoke and quit cold turkey in one day back in 1982. If not,I most likely would not be presenting the following thoghts.
So.... Let the individual business owners decide what's best for their business, and let people enjoy their nights out however they please, wherever they please. Smokers have been flexible by not hollering too much (they don't have the lung capacity for it, really) about smoking bans in restaurants, clubs bars, offices, and other public places, because, although they don't like it, it is the fair thing to do. Non-smokers should be willing to be a little flexible too, and not directly cause business owners to lose money, your favorite eatery or bars to lose their character.
It's a given that cigarette smokers are in the vast majority at mostclubs and bars, the people that smokers harm the most when they smoke in a bar is other smokers!
I see the arguments for smoking bans, and there are some good ones.
Continued...
Posted by OD (anonymous) on November 19, 2009 at 9:21 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Fact #1 -- Smoking cigarettes is bad for your health.
Yes, they are bad for you. They will chemically addict you, and they will probably kill you if you smoke enough of them. I refer you to my politically polarizing paragraph above: The key word there is you -- it's a personal choice. If a reasonably sane, able-minded person wants to kill or harm themselves from the inside, especially using legal, sold-at-the-Quickie-Mart methods, they should be able to do that without condemnation.. Government's job is to keep us from harming each other, not ourselves.
Fact #2 -- Second- hand smoke is detrimental to the health of others.
I'm not saying second hand smoke isn't bad for you. Its certainly not good for you at all. It just doesn't necessarily cause cancer or emphysema or anything like that, although it may exacerbate an already existing condition. I realize that the studies that were done, such as on airline flight attendants in the '80's, showing that they got serious health problems from being on planes all day with people smoking But that's just it -- they were cooped up in a little pressurized torture chamber with wings for hours and days on end, not in a nightclub or restaraunt for a couple of hours, a couple of nights a week. The anti-smoking lobby has plenty of new data all the time to support their claims, and, contrarily, the pro-smoking rights lobby has just as much data to support their side of the issue. They just don't get their data out there, because no network is going to run pro-smoking PSA. As usual, there's no way to whole-heartedly believe the facts given by either side, because they give only the facts that support their respective agendas.
Fact #3 -- Non-smokers should not have to be harmed by the bad choices of others.
That is absolutely true. What is also true is that non-smokers donÕt have to be harmed by smokers in bars. They are free to choose what bars they go to and donÕt go to. If they dont want to be around smoke, they donÕt have to go to that smokey bar or restaraunt.There is no reason for it to be completely outlawed. If they want their favorite bar to be non-smoking, they should tell the owner, and try and get other customers to do the same. Why do people feel like whenever there is a wrong, the only way to right it is by passing a law? Just tell the manager. And if you, the non-smoker, are in the minority, and the manager chooses to keep allowing smoking, just accept the fact that you are a less-than-50% patronage of the establishment, and either deal with the smoke or find another place to go.
continued...
Posted by OD (anonymous) on November 19, 2009 at 9:27 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Fact #4 -- Everyone should quit smoking because it will probably kill you.
Yes, maybe if everyone everywhere quit smoking, we would all be a lot healthier as a species. What anti-smokers don't understand is that most smokers simply don't care how healthy they are. It's just not important to them, which is a concept that non-smokers can't (or won't) comprehend. There's a million other ways to die, which don't have anything to do with smoking cigarettes, and could happen to anyone at any moment, so smokers just say "Why not live it up. You could get hit by a bus five minutes from now." That'd be ironic, wouldn't it? Someone all for smoking bans, leaving a Smoke-Free Suffolk meeting downtown or in Harborview walking out of the building and getting hit by a bus. Yep, that there's irony for you.
continued
Posted by OD (anonymous) on November 19, 2009 at 9:31 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I bring these comments into the debate as a common sense issue. I am getting off of my soapbox now. I gotta go now --I m calling the cops. My next door neighbor's smoking with the window open.
Posted by gene (anonymous) on November 23, 2009 at 4:10 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Great collection of tobacco industry arguments, OD!
Smoking bans have been examined and implemented for 20 years now, and all your "common sense" talking points have been brought up--usually by the tobacco industry--and addressed in open hearings in thousands of communities, half the states, and many countries -- most of which have far stricter smoking bans than Virginia. Where have you been?
Have you noticed how everyone who shouts "common sense" sounds like a nut job or a PR maven?
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