A firm stand on public smoking

Virginia Senate subcommittee took a firm stand for health by blessing the strongest of three proposed public smoking bans earlier this week.

The measure, Senate Bill 298, would ban smoking in restaurants and most other public places. Homes, private clubs, tobacco shops, nursing homes and motel rooms designated for smokers would be exempt.

The proposal moves to the Senate Health and Education Subcommittee today. We urge the subcommittee to approve it and send it on to the full Senate for its consideration without delay.

A smoking ban is no longer risky business. Twenty-nine states, including Tennessee, have adopted some form of statewide restrictions. These laws range from prohibitions on smoking in restaurants only to broad-based workplace smoking bans.

Senate Bill 298, sponsored by Sen. Mary Margaret Whipple, D-Arlington, falls somewhere in the middle of the spectrum of such bans. It would provide protection from occupational exposure to secondhand smoke for most Virginia workers and would protect the rights of non-smokers to enjoy a restaurant meal free from dirty air.

Science supports this legislation. Secondhand smoke exposure causes lung cancer in non-smoking adults, exacerbates asthma in adults and children, raises the risk of heart disease and is a known risk factor for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

In fact, the Environmental Protection Agency reports that 3,000 non-smoking Americans die each year of lung cancer as a result of secondhand smoke exposure.

Such grim facts leave little doubt why the vast majority of Virginians, including plenty of former smokers, support a public smoking ban, particularly in restaurants. Polls indicate more than 70 percent support for such bans, even in a traditional tobacco belt state like Virginia.

Virginia came close to enacting a restaurant smoking ban last year. The measure passed the Senate, which had also approved similar legislation in 2006, but was killed in the House.

The House, which is still controlled by Republicans, will be the challenge again this year. We urge Republicans to reconsider their squeamish feelings about government regulations and act to protect the health of their children and grandchildren. What could be more important?

Cigarette smoke isn’t just a nuisance; it’s a poison.

At the Senate subcommittee hearing, Dr. William A. Hazel Jr., past president of the Medical Society of Virginia, detailed the appalling list of carcinogens and other toxic chemicals contained in cigarette smoke – acetone (the active ingredient in nail polish remover), ammonia, arsenic and even traces of polonium-210, the radioactive element that was used to kill a former KGB spy in Great Britain. Those are just a few of the hundreds (some say thousands) of identifiable chemicals in smoke.

Adult smokers can choose to ingest such poisons if they wish, but the state should not be complicit in allowing them to expose others to this wicked brew.

Enough’s enough. It’s time for Virginia to join the 21st century mainstream and adopt a sensible smoking ban to protect the health and welfare of its residents.