It may be unfair to businesses that didn’t get exceptions. It may protect some individuals’ rights while infringing on others’. But in the final analysis, the statewide public smoking ban that passed the state Senate on Friday is a step in the right direction.
The bill addresses, above all else, a public health concern. Studies have shown conclusively that second-hand smoke isn’t just an irritant and annoyance to non-smokers. Second-hand smoke kills.
According to the American Cancer Society, cigarette smoke contains at least 69 chemicals known to cause cancer. About 3,400 non-smoking adults die each year of lung cancer from breathing second-hand smoke. And second-hand smoke causes about 46,000 deaths yearly of non-smokers from heart disease.
An all-out ban of smoking in all public places would be ideal. But this watered-down bill, which awaits Gov. Mitch Daniels’ signature, contained necessary compromises to give the Hoosier state what it has needed for a long time.
Casinos, bars and taverns, private and fraternal clubs and existing cigar and hookah bars are exempt from the bill. This is a nod to powerful lobbying interests that convinced state legislatures that a ban of smoking would cause serious harm to their businesses.
Cigar and hookah bars exist for the very purpose of smoking, so that exemption makes sense. If you’ve ever been in a casino, you recognize that a great many gamblers smoke. If Hoosier Park in Anderson were smoke-free, it might pick up some clients, but it would likely lose far more to other casinos in nearby states where casino smoking is allowed.
The exemptions benefit businesses that rely heavily on smokers to remain profitable. Non-smokers can simply avoid such places.
Those who oppose any sort of a smoking ban because of infringement on personal rights will argue that the same can be said for any other place of business; if non-smokers don’t like it, they can go somewhere else.
But society has a right and a need to impose stricter standards on restaurants and other places that routinely cater to children, who are particularly susceptible to the dangers of second-hand smoke. Each year, more than 150,000 children suffer respiratory infections and up to 15,000 are hospitalized for lung infections as a result of breathing second-hand smoke, according to the American Cancer Society. Second-hand smoke is particularly harmful to asthmatic children, causing medical complications each year in as many as a million cases.
A positive byproduct of the smoking ban is that it puts Indiana among the majority of enlightened states that either ban smoking or put serious restrictions on it in public. Passage of the ban marks Indiana as a state that promotes good public health, clean air and an inviting environment for doing business and raising a family.
The smoking ban, which will take effect July 1, isn’t perfect. In some ways, it isn’t even fair. But it is better than no ban at all and can be strengthened at the local level or statewide in a future session of the Legislature.
© 2024 Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc.