It seems like ages since the host/hostess at a restaurant asked a once familiar question: “Smoking or non-smoking?”
It’s been almost five years since Indiana enacted a statewide smoking ban in public places. The law, however, excluded bars and casinos, meaning there are still places where hazy clouds hang over patrons. Places non-smokers may visit infrequently or avoid all together.
The dangers of smoking are real and clearly defined by the medical community. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, tobacco use is the single largest preventable cause of death and disease in the United States. It kills more than 480,000 American each year … and those aren’t all smokers. More than 41,000 of these Americans die from exposure to secondhand smoke.
As if the human toll wasn’t enough, smoking-related illness costs more than $300 billion a year in the U.S., including $170 billion in direct care for adults and $156 billion lost in productivity.
Yet, about 15.1 percent of, or 36.5 million, U.S. adults continue to smoke, 75 percent of them every single day.
So, while we can’t always protect smokers from themselves, we can continue to protect non-smokers from the noxious fumes associated with cigarettes. That’s 41,000 lives we could save.
That’s why local municipalities should follow the lead of other Hoosier communities, such as South Bend, and ban smoking in all public places, including bars.
It’s possible, even likely, a prohibition on smoking will cost bars and casinos some business. Those patrons who smoke may flee to other communities without these restrictions in place.
But that loss will be more than made up for by attracting non-smoking customers to venues they long ago fled.
It will also earn our communities a reputation for progressive thinking, make them more attractive to potential residents and paint a better picture of the area’s overall health.
Erase the haze, and there will be a better, healthier future ahead.