[C-U Smokefree] Public Health Protection Needs Governmental Support

[Theotskl at aol.com]

Hi all--

FYI from St. Paul's smoke free ordinance campaign.

Cheers,

Theo Tsoukalas, Ph.D.

EDITORIAL: Government Should Protect Health
Smokefree workplace laws are a matter of public health protection
 
Parts excerpted from the Star Tribune, 5/10/04
 
The dangers of breathing secondhand smoke are so well documented and so well 
publicized that it is astonishing that Minnesotans haven't insisted on clean 
air in restaurants and bars until now.  Yet a statewide smokefree workplace law 
languishes in the legislature.  As the state dithers, St. Paul and its 
Minneapolis twin should institute protective laws in tandem.
This is not a matter of lifestyle freedom. It is a matter of public health 
protection. 

Minnesota doesn't collectively tell bank executives to just get another job 
if they don't like smoke-filled offices, yet that is the message sent to 
servers, bartenders and others who work in restaurants and bars. No one is 
protecting them.

Public health experts have recognized for some time that exposure to 
secondhand smoke increases risks for both lung cancer and heart disease in nonsmokers, 
and that children are particularly susceptible to its ill effects. That 
hasn't been in serious dispute for years. But recent research has suggested much 
more dramatic, immediate effects.

Dave Thune, the City Council member who introduced the St. Paul ordinance 
last week, deserves widespread support in this effort.  Experience elsewhere has 
shown either neutral or positive, not negative, economic effects from 
smokefree laws. Toxins in workers' blood decreased. The vast majority of citizens 
enjoyed eating out more. 

The Twin Cities should take the leap, no matter what happens at the Capitol. 
Everyone would be better off for it, whether they realize it now or not.




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