Letter to the Editor 03/13/2005
Written with Councillor Angela Mansfield on the Smokefree Air OrdinanceThe purpose of the Smokefree Air Act being considered by the City-County Council is to provide smokefree air in the workplace and in places where people gather. The evidence clearly shows that secondhand smoke kills.
Many of us have known for years the dangers of smoking. We now know that secondhand smoke is a health hazard and that it is much more dangerous than we once thought. More than 250 Marion County residents die each year from illnesses caused by secondhand smoke, and more than$16.7 million is spent each year to treat those illnesses.
In Helena, Mont., when elected officials enacted a smokefree air ordinance, the number of heart attack patients admitted to the emergency room dropped dramatically, then spiked back up when the ordinance was suspended in a court challenge.
Separate sections in the same room do not protect anyone from secondhand smoke that circulates everywhere. Two hours in a nonsmoking section of a restaurant equals two cigarettes. Two hours in a smoky bar equals five cigarettes. No ventilation system can clean all the poisons and carcinogens out of the air; the system removes only the smell and the fogginess.
Secondhand smoke stiffens your aorta within five minutes, increases the clotting in your blood within 20 minutes, and can cause a heart attack in as little as 30 minutes. These are not problems that take many years to develop only after repeated exposure.
When we were elected, we promised to help provide a safe and healthy community. We also promised to create jobs by promoting the economy.Jobs are not easy to obtain, and workers should not have to risk their health to get or keep a job. As long as an ordinance creates an even playing field, the overwhelming statistics show that there is no loss of business long term. Seventy-two percent of adults in Marion County do not smoke. An Indiana University - Purdue University at Indianapolis opinion poll shows that 30 percent of those nonsmokers stated they would frequent restaurants more often if a smokefree air ordinance were adopted. This shows businesses would stand to gain economically.
Interestingly, even 61 percent of smokers agree that the rights of employees and customers to breathe clean air outweigh the rights of smokers to smoke in restaurants and public places. A smokefree environment ensures a safe and healthy community without hurting the economy.
We have heard complaints that there is already too much government involvement in business. Most of this intervention, however, is helpful. We require food service workers to wash their hands to prevent the spread of disease, and we impose many other health-related requirements.
Consider the possibility of a crowded bar catching fire. Some business owners don't want to have doors that open easily, because those doors might cost more money, and some patrons might sneak in. Requiring doors that can be opened from the inside, however, is a life-saving requirement that keeps the crowd fleeing the fire from trampling other patrons.
There are many other examples where governments impose responsibilities on businesses, because the regulations could save lives. Smokefree air ordinance is that kind of regulation.
We have been asked to consider allowing smoking in bars where children are not allowed. Why would someone not smoke in his own home or around children, yet go to a bar to smoke? Workers exposed to secondhand smoke are 34 percent more likely to get lung cancer, and workers in bars are exposed to a concentration of secondhand smoke as much as 18.5 times higher than office workers.
We cannot in good conscience tell the bar workers that their lives are any less valuable than the lives of others.
We recognize that tobacco is a legal product. When balancing that with the dangers of secondhand smoke, however, we believe the health of our community is more important. This ordinance does not prevent people from smoking. It merely prevents people from smoking in workplaces and public places where it will hurt the people around them. Please support our efforts to make Indianapolis a healthier place.
– City-County Council members Gregory Bowes and Angela Mansfield are cosponsors of the smokefree ordinance, along with Scott Keller, Steve Talley and Patrice Abduallah.
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