Two Views on Calif Smoking Ban [01/11-1]

Two different views, but both conclude that the ban on indoor smoking is working.

Excerpts from CALIFORNIA LIVING: SNUFF OUT THAT CIGARETTE, PLEASE

by Ted Rueter, Christian Science Monitor [01/12/98]

California is a political trend-setter. From cutting property taxes to banning leaf blowers, from eliminating affirmative action to enacting term limits, from limiting public services for illegal immigrants to ending bilingual education, the Golden State leads the way.

Now it's taken the lead on another big issue: smoking. AR 13, which took effect Jan. 1, bans smoking in virtually all indoor public places, including bars.

While California had banned smoking in restaurants, factories, offices, and other enclosed workplaces since 1995, the law contained an exemption for bars and restaurants, in the hope that sophisticated ventilation systems could be devised. But that didn't happen. And no-smoking sections in bars and restaurants aren't a solution, since smoke respects no boundaries.

'A toxic waste dump'

There is clear justification for California's ban on public indoor smoking. Second-hand smoke is the nation's third-leading preventable cause of death. Stanton Glantz, a professor of medicine at the University of California at San Francisco, calls the cigarette "a toxic waste dump on fire." California's no-smoking law moves the nation a step closer to the goal of a smoke-free society.

Of course, many people oppose the California ban. Thomas Humber, president of the National Smokers Alliance, says, "What you've got in California again is Prohibition."

But that's a poor analogy. Prohibition banned the consumption of liquor -anywhere. The California law only outlaws public indoor smoking. No one will be arrested for smoking on the street or at home.

A better comparison is the nation's crackdown on drunk driving. Laws allow drinking - but not while driving. Both drunk driving and public indoor smoking endanger the public welfare. Pro-smoking activists argue that "smokers have rights, too." And that's true - as long as they don't injure others.

Smokers find no solace in democratic theory. While James Madison warned of the dangers of majority tyranny, he also argued that majority rule was the essence of democracy. Permitting public indoor smoking allows the minority to rule, harming the majority. And smokers are a distinct minority. Only 25 percent of the nation's adults are smokers; in California, it's 18 percent. Further, 70 percent of smokers say they'd like to kick the habit, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

My free-market friend said private businesses have rights and shouldn't be forced to ban smoking. But private property rights aren't inalienable. Private businesses don't have the right to ignore the minimum wage or health and safety regulations. Since the New Deal, the federal government has regulated private businesses in order to serve the public welfare.

My economist friend also asserted that businesses should be financially compensated if they are forced to ban smoking. This is illogical. Bar and restaurant owners who allow smoking are making a foolish business decision. There are three times as many nonsmokers in the US as smokers. Many nonsmokers stay away because they hate smoke.

A study by the Institute for Health Policy Studies at the University of California at San Francisco compared sales tax revenues in municipalities with and without smoke-free ordinances - and found no difference. A Massachusetts survey showed that smoke- free laws would increase bar patronage by nonsmokers.

San Luis Obispo's fresh air

In 1990, my adopted hometown of San Luis Obispo, Calif., became the nation's first community to ban all public indoor smoking. Nonsmokers have the right to go to any bar or restaurant in town and not be assaulted by noxious fumes. Tourists love the smoke-free environment. Enforcement problems are nonexistent. And the local bar and restaurant trade is booming.

While California's outdoor air may be of poor quality, it's taken a dramatic step to safeguard the quality of indoor air. Other states should do the same.

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Excerpts from PROHIBITION ALL OVER AGAIN; IN CALIFORNIA, SMOKERS LOSE A ONCE SACROSANCT HAVEN--BARS

by Steve Lopez, Time Magazine [01/12/98]

But in the city that celebrates sin, as of the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve you can't walk into a bar and light a smoke. In the entire state of California, a fragile plate cracked head-to-toe by the sheer force of political extremes, you can no longer enjoy the leaf in the gin mill of your choice.

And so on Jan. 1 you get into a car--because that's still legal in Los Angeles, despite a midday sky that spreads like an underarm stain from Burbank to Buena Park--and you go to the places you know will defy the smoking ban that went into effect a few hours earlier.

First stop, the King's Head in Santa Monica. It's a British pub, a place where the smoke used to be as thick as kidney pie. Now there's scarcely a trace of it; in fact, the King's Head looks as if the patrons are waiting for the Queen to show up for tea and crumpets. "It's a bit ridiculous, if you ask me," says bartender Jane Myers, a Brit who wonders why Americans can't just let themselves go. "They'll come in here and order fish and chips and a diet Coke. Now, what's that about?"

Indeed. You're back in the car headed east to Talpa, a favorite Mexican joint in West Los Angeles where on warm summer nights you have sat with a cold beer and a Cuban (cigar, not companion) and watched the Dodgers on Spanish-language television. But you walk in now and, sure enough, owner Andres Martinez has posted no-smoking signs. The law is the law, he says dolefully, and it's the bar owner, not the customer, who will pay the fines--starting at $ 100 and going as high as $ 7,000--if the butt police appear.

Same story at the trendy Bar Marmont on Sunset, and at nearby Dublin's. An Irish pub without smoke? Stand on a corner in Los Angeles for two hours, and you've got black lung. But having cleared tobacco smoke from every other public space in California, reformers have entered the last refuge. They'll ban alcohol next, and pretty soon California will be a string of juice bars, from Mexico to Oregon.