It was the week before Christmas and all the smokers in Illinois were getting apprehensive about their upcoming exile from public places on New Years Day. I was at a well-known local blues bar enjoying some live music when the bar owner came up to the stage to introduce the next band. Before he brought them on, he asked the audience a question. He asked us to raise our hands if we smoked, and about 1/3 of the audience did so. Then he asked us to raise our hands if we smoked when we drank, and over half the audience raised their hands. Finally, he asked us, “How many of you think that you should be able to come to a blues bar, have a beer, smoke a cigarette and listen to some live blues?” At that, almost the entire audience raised their hands and began to cheer.
After the audience had quieted down, the bar owner told us, “About 10 years ago the politicians in Chicago promised the bar owners that they would always have the choice on whether to be smoking or non. Now they have recanted and broken that promise. The people who lobbied for the Clean Air Act paid A LOT of money to have this passed.” Perhaps we should rename this act the “Money is Power Act” to reflect a more accurate description of what is taking place.
The Clean Air Act claims to give Illinois cleaner air by banning cigarette smoking in all public places. The politicians who support this act are advertising themselves as “protectors” of the air that we all breathe and labeling this ban as a way to increase our general health and safety. However, the sad fact of reality is apparent: air pollution is a very extensive problem. The smoking ban is not going to put a dent in our air pollution issue. Exhaust from the millions of vehicles we drive everyday pollute our air exponentially more than cigarette smoke. It seems as though the wrong issue is being publicized and ‘solved.’ The politicians who claim to be helping to make us healthier by banning smoking are pulling the wool over our eyes so that we temporarily forget about the ‘real’ air pollution problems and applaud them for their ‘effort’ toward our general welfare. I for one have a serious problem with politicians specifically ignoring the necessary changes we require in social policy for air pollution (indeed pollution in general) while making themselves out to be ‘heroes’ who are saving our youth. What exactly are they saving us from when chronic problems like asthma are at an all time high due to the poor air quality from exhaust and smog?
We live in a country called America, where adults are able to make their own decisions on how to live their lives. Now, we are limited by the unlawfulness of some actions, for example no one can lawfully use illegal drugs. However, when a substance is legal, such as alcohol or cigarettes, there are designated public places where use of these substances is acceptable. Before the smoking ban, there were plenty of non-smoking restaurants and bars that non-smokers could enjoy or even work at without having to be affected by second hand smoke. This is just as well as there are plenty of restaurants that do not serve alcohol, for those who do not wish to be around that environment. How can a government, which claims to support civil rights and adult decision making, outlaw smoking in ALL PUBLIC PLACES? If cigarettes were the real problem, they would be illegal. How can we tell bar owners, that are sometimes smokers themselves, that they cannot smoke in their own bars?! We are losing sight of the real problems that affect us, and instead of improving social policy, we are waving some of our most important rights goodbye. I believe that banning smoking in all public places makes just as much sense as requiring there to be a smoking section in every restaurant. It should be the owner’s decision on what their smoking policy is at their particular establishment. Can’t we trust each other as adults to make competent decisions? Or are we left at the mercy of the ‘heroes’ to decide everything for us as though we are helpless children who are unaware of what is for our own good?