The Willow Glen Resident

Smoke gets in your eyes--again?

By John C. Longhurst, M.D., Ph.D., and Linda Henker, R.N.

Smoky restaurants and bars may be returning to California--if the tobacco industry gets its way. Assembly Bill 297 by Edward Vincent,which passed the state Assembly on Jan. 21, would reverse the protection from deadly secondhand smoke and return smoking to some 30,000 restaurants throughout the state.

While the state Senate has not yet considered the bill, a return to smoking in restaurants is a very real possibility.

The tobacco industry detests California's Smokefree Workplace Act, especially the provision that created smoke-free restaurants, bars, taverns and gaming clubs on Jan. 1, and it is marshaling its forces and spending millions to reverse the law. AB 297 specifically seeks to repeal that part of the Smokefree Workplace Act that prohibits smoking in bars--including bar-restaurant combinations--taverns and gaming clubs.

Big tobacco is terrified that the smoke-free norm in California for offices, retail stores, manufacturing plants and all other workplaces will become the norm in other parts of the nation.

They definitely do not like the smoke-free workplaces that most of us do not think of as workplaces--bars. The truth is that restaurant bars and freestanding taverns--places to socialize for many of us--are workplaces for some 850,000 Californians.

Philip Morris, RJ Reynolds and others in the tobacco business oppose smoke-free workplaces for one reason--they may negatively affect their bottom-line profits.

With sales of over 1.7 billion packs in California in 1996, smoking means big bucks for the tobacco industry. That's all they care about. They claim to care about "freedom" and "choice," their buzz words to try to refocus the issue while they continue to target youth.

In the name of saving their profits, the tobacco industry has formed the National Smokers Alliance, paying top public relations firms $1 million for lobbyists to do their dirty work.

Don't underestimate their power. The tobacco industry spends more than $5.2 billion nationally in advertising and marketing. Here in California, its propaganda machine is working overtime, as officials try to frame the health of workers and nonsmokers as a rights issue for smokers. The tobacco industry's public relations machine is trying to make "prohibition" the issue--even though no one is talking about outlawing smoking.

The industry is trying to make enforcement the issue --even though more businesses comply with the law than expected. And because of the tobacco industry's misinformation campaign, many people wrongly think that a repeal of the law is inevitable, which makes authorities less likely to fine violators.

The tobacco industry is fanning the misperception that there is no broad-based public support for smoke-free places, even though 82 percent of Californians are nonsmokers, and polls show widespread support for the law in all parts of the state.

What is the issue? Worker health and safety. No one should have to put his or her health at risk to accommodate a toxic gas. No one should have to quit a job to accommodate another's addiction. The issue is protection from a deadly toxin that kills between 4,200 and 7,400 Californians from heart disease and stroke every year.

Remember, there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke. Tobacco industry officials deny its toxicity, just as they denied that tobacco was addictive for more than three decades. Do they think we're stupid?

If you do not want to see a return to smoky bars, contact your state senator with your support for smoke-free places. Act now--unless you want to breathe secondhand smoke the next time you go out for dinner or smell like an ashtray the next time you socialize.

John C. Longhurst, M.D., Ph.D., is president of the American Heart Association, Western States Affiliate. The Senate Health & Human Services Committee is scheduled to consider AB 297 on March 25.

[ Back to Contents Page | Willow Glen Resident Home Page | Archives ]