This is America.  Don’t citizens have a right to smoke, even if it hurts them?

Can’t non-smokers just avoid places where colleagues smoke?

Can’t non-smokers choose not to work in a smoky environment?

Shouldn’t adults be permitted to smoke in bars?

Improve air ventilation to reduce environmental tobacco smoke?

Won’t restaurants and bars lose business?

Don’t all workers deserve equal protection from toxic secondhand smoke on the job?

This is America.  Don’t citizens have a right to smoke, even if it hurts them?

Yes, smokers are free to continue to smoke—as long as they don’t expose others involuntarily to cancer-causing chemicals.  American democracy has always created laws to protect society from threats to our health and safety.  Sometimes limits must be imposed on the right of one individual to engage in behavior that, while acceptable if it affects the individual only, is harmful to others. 

 Protecting people from exposure to secondhand smoke is an example of society acting to safeguard citizens from involuntary exposure to dangerous risk.  When one person’s right to engage in certain behavior conflicts with another person’s right not to be harmed, limits have generally been placed on the harmful behavior. 

Can’t non-smokers just avoid places where colleagues smoke?

Suggesting that an employee can just walk away from an area where someone is smoking is unfair and often unrealistic.  Should non-smokers be forced to restrict their activities (e.g., not eating lunch in an employee cafeteria because people are smoking) in order to protect their health? More importantly, in many workplaces it is physically impossible to escape breathing toxic fumes from other people’s cigarettes. 

Can’t non-smokers choose not to work in a smoky environment?

It’s unfair to argue that someone should find another job if he or she doesn’t want to be exposed to smoke in a particular workplace.  Jobs aren’t usually that easy to come by.  In addition, for many people – students supporting themselves through college, single parents who need flexibility in their work schedules, performers who need flexibility so they can go to auditions and study – restaurant and bar work is often the most flexible and best-paying available.  Unfortunately, these workers are the least protected from exposure to secondhand smoke on the job.

 I can understand banning smoking in restaurants, where food is served and children are allowed, but why shouldn’t adults be permitted to smoke in bars?

Secondhand smoke is a lethal but preventable occupational health hazard for the employees of bars, restaurants, and other indoor places where smoking is now permitted. Working an 8-hour shift, bartenders inhale carcinogens similar to smoking more than half a pack of cigarettes. Exposure to secondhand smoke among food and hospitality industry workers has increased rates of lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema, asthma, respiratory disease, and many other ailments.

 Can’t we just improve air ventilation to reduce environmental tobacco smoke?

This alternative, supported by the tobacco industry as a means of “accommodating” smokers and nonsmokers within the same space, does not meet public health goals of protecting people from secondhand smoke.  Ventilation experts concur that even the newest technology does not address the health concerns inherent in secondhand smoke and is an extremely costly renovation to make.  Many of the carcinogens and toxins inherent in secondhand smoke are odorless and colorless, making it virtually impossible to create a truly safe environment, despite its appearance.

 Won’t restaurants and bars lose business?

There is no evidence from any locations that have gone smoke-free that restaurants and bars will lose money.  In fact, studies suggest that eliminating secondhand smoke has either a neutral or positive effect on sales.  By going smoke-free, businesses can save money due to reduced absenteeism among non-smoking employees.  Businesses can also benefit from decreased insurance rates and maintenance costs.

 Don’t all workers deserve equal protection from toxic secondhand smoke on the job? 

Yes!