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No Comments [ Add Comment ]Smokers, brace for another hit
A pretty
sound argument could be made that it was smokers' narcissism that put an end to their ability to light up in close quarters with nonsmokers.
The deluge of scientific research identifying secondhand tobacco smoke as being too dangerous to tolerate was a good excuse for nonsmokers to finally show smokers the door, as it were. Most indoor smoking was banned in the 1970s and early '80s. Until slightly more than 20 years ago, every time smokers felt like lighting up in an office, a grocery store or a restaurant, they forced everyone else to smoke, too. Society finally decided it was through tolerating that level of conceit.
Now the pendulum is swinging wider. Cities, counties and states are moving to ban smoking from outdoor gathering places, too. In Utah, the Clinton City Council, in October 2002, began debating whether to ban smoking in its public parks. That city eventually did, and last year, Salt Lake City followed suit.
But no other Davis County city followed Clinton's lead. We're not sure why. Maybe there exists no public outcry for change.
Whatever the reasons, the Davis County Health Department is now leading out; it has set a goal to make about 150 outdoor locations within the county smoke-free in the not-too-distant future and will discuss the matter in a meeting a week from today.
We agree that it's time to regulate secondhand smoke in outdoor public areas like ball fields, and public parks. We agreed with the Clinton City Council along those lines when it was debating the issue in 2002 and 2003.
And it makes sense for the health department to take the lead because whatever ordinance it enacts would apply countywide -- that way there would be no patchwork of confusing or conflicting rules governing smoking from city to city.
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