close

EDITORIAL: Close the loopholes on indoor air law

4 min read
article image -

More than a half-century ago, the U.S. surgeon general issued a landmark report linking smoking to cancer and heart disease. For years thereafter, Big Tobacco fought tooth and nail against those findings (much as polluters and their politician allies deny the science of climate change today), but ultimately the vast majority of the populace came to accept that smoking can kill you. We later learned that some of the same health risks are posed by secondhand smoke.

A recent report in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette took a look at what has happened in the 10 years since the state of Pennsylvania banned smoking in most workplaces and public facilities. Despite the ban, there are still about 2,000 workplaces in the commonwealth where people can continue to light up. Most of those are bars, along with parts of the state’s dozen casinos.

The law allows bars to exempt themselves from the state’s Clean Indoor Air Act if food sales make up less than 20 percent of their revenues, and people younger than 18 are prohibited from entering. There once were more than 3,000 such establishments in the state, so thankfully the number is declining.

Loren Robinson, the state Department of Health’s deputy secretary for health promotion and disease prevention, told the P-G that one likely reason is simply that people “are wanting to breathe fresh, clean air.”

Robinson said another consideration is a reality of business. “If you want to bring in more revenue by selling more food, you can’t do that and meet the terms of the exception,” she told the newspaper.

Perhaps the question we should be asking ourselves today is why any bar or casino should be permitted to escape the clean-air law.

According to Centers for Disease Control figures cited by the P-G, since the surgeon general’s initial report on smoking risks in 1964, more than 2.5 million nonsmokers have died from secondhand smoke-related health issues.

Some members of the state Legislature have introduced bills to remove the exceptions to the clean-air law, with no success. The P-G cited House and Senate bills offered last year that would end the exemptions, bar smoking on outdoor patios at bars and restaurants, and give local governments the authority to impose anti-smoking measures even tougher than those enacted by the state. The bills haven’t even made it out of committee.

The P-G talked with Sen. Stewart Greenleaf, a Republican from Montgomery County, who was the chief supporter of the existing no-smoking law. He’s gratified that the law has most likely saved “hundreds of lives,” but he said there were not sufficient votes to make the law stronger, noting heavy lobbying by casinos and taverns.

“I remember thinking, you have to take what you can get,” Greenleaf told the newspaper. “If we pushed for no exceptions, we would have had no protection the last decade.”

Those who would argue against tightening the law might say that people can choose whether to frequent an establishment where smoking is permitted. Why should they have to? There’s also the question of whether employees of places that still permit smoking should be subjected to the hazards of secondhand smoke. Some might say they can look for work elsewhere. But again, why should they have to?

Smoking is hazardous to the health of smokers and anyone who is around them. If smokers want to imperil their own lives, in their own homes, that should be their business. But the state should not permit them to endanger the health of others in bars, casinos or any other public venues.

CUSTOMER LOGIN

If you have an account and are registered for online access, sign in with your email address and password below.

NEW CUSTOMERS/UNREGISTERED ACCOUNTS

Never been a subscriber and want to subscribe, click the Subscribe button below.

Starting at $3.75/week.

Subscribe Today