By WARREN BOLTON - Associate Editor
SMOKING BANS save lives. A recent government study affirming that fact shouldn’t shock anyone.
Instead, it should prompt more cities and counties in South Carolina to act.
It’s hard to understand why even more local governments haven’t jumped at the opportunity to protect the health and lives of workers and patrons since the S.C. Supreme Court gave them the green light.
Many have been wringing their hands over the prospects because some bar and restaurant owners won’t like it. Those business owners should be able to make the decision themselves, some argue.
But this is a matter of life and death. And — now, this may be a shock for some — keeping people alive and healthy is a higher priority than personal preference.
Innocent people ought not be at risk of getting sick and dying because of someone else’s bad, and dangerous, habit. The U.S. Surgeon General has declared there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand cigarette smoke. Cigarettes cause lung cancer and other deadly illnesses — in smokers, and in nonsmokers who inhale smoke.
Health officials say secondhand smoke increases the risk of lung cancer in nonsmoking adults by at least 20 percent.
Just think of what would happen if our state raised the cigarette tax and passed a statewide smoking ban. Unfortunately, state elected leaders haven’t seen fit to do either. They came close to raising the tax this past legislative session, but the governor vetoed it. And lawmakers haven’t summoned the will to pass a smoking ban, largely due to the strong tobacco lobby.
So, for now, local governments are South Carolinians’ only chance for relief.
And there’s a great need for relief. While there’s been a great decline in the number of nonsmokers who take in secondhand smoke, that’s tempered by the fact that nearly half of nonsmokers continue to involuntarily inhale poison.
The new CDC report has somber news for some groups, particularly children and black people who are nonsmokers. While the proportion of blacks with a recent exposure to smoke dropped from 94 percent to about 71 percent, it dropped from 83 percent to 43 percent for whites.
Also unsettling is the fact that exposures for children didn’t drop as steeply as for adults. More than 60 percent of children ages 4 through 11 had recent exposure to cigarette smoke in the 1999-2004 period.
It’s time to kick the habit.
Governments must ban smoking in public places, including bars and restaurants. Families and individuals must stop lighting up at home and in cars.
I know quitting isn’t easy.
But it’s easier than watching friends, loved ones and neighbors suffer and perish from the effects of secondhand smoke.
So, for now, local governments are South Carolinians’ only chance for relief.
And there’s a great need for relief. While there’s been a great decline in the number of nonsmokers who take in secondhand smoke, that’s tempered by the fact that nearly half of nonsmokers continue to involuntarily inhale poison.
The new CDC report has somber news for some groups, particularly children and black people who are nonsmokers. While the proportion of blacks with a recent exposure to smoke dropped from 94 percent to about 71 percent, it dropped from 83 percent to 43 percent for whites.
Also unsettling is the fact that exposures for children didn’t drop as steeply as for adults. More than 60 percent of children ages 4 through 11 had recent exposure to cigarette smoke in the 1999-2004 period.
It’s time to kick the habit.
Governments must ban smoking in public places, including bars and restaurants. Families and individuals must stop lighting up at home and in cars.
I know quitting isn’t easy.
But it’s easier than watching friends, loved ones and neighbors suffer and perish from the effects of secondhand smoke.
Read the complete editorial at the following link: http://www.thestate.com/editorial-columns/story/468617.html
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