Blowing Smoke

We are one step closer to having smoke-free restaurants in Springfield.

The governor's wrestling match with legislation allowing local smoking bans ended Wednesday when he approved the measure.

[snip]

HB 672 revises the Illinois Clean Indoor Act of 1989, which generally requires that smoking be contained in designated areas at public locations and workplaces and prohibits cities from adding stricter regulations. When the law was enacted, only the 21 communities with existing clean-air ordinances were allowed to set local smoking policy.

Groups such as the American Lung Association and the American Cancer Society have since lobbied for local control over indoor-air laws, citing the effects of second-hand smoke on restaurant and bar workers and nonsmokers.

The new law, which takes effect Jan. 1, returns the choice to municipalities.

[snip]

Springfield Ward 10 Ald. Bruce Strom in June said he would push an ordinance that would ban smoking in all enclosed workplaces, although only Ward 8 Ald. Irv Smith supported Strom's proposal at the time. Mayor Tim Davlin said then that he would oppose an indoor smoking ban.

Let the battle begin. In the end, some sort of smoking ban will pass here. I would settle for having it only apply to restaurants but it would be great if it were even more comprehensive.

Listening to the Jim Leach Show this morning on WMAY, I heard complaints that any smoking ban would be taking away "rights". As I've said before, your "right" to smoke ends where your filthy habit pollutes the air I'm breathing. Go home, lock yourself in the bathroom and smoke your brains out. Have fun. Just keep your poisons away from me and my family. Anyone who can't refrain from smoking long enough to eat a meal and pay their bill, has a serious problem.

Similar bans around the country (and world) are working fine. Businesses aren't folding and smokers are somehow managing to feed their addiction. So when you hear the bogus arguments that business will be hurt and rights are being violated, remember bans are working just fine elsewhere.

It's now time to put pressure on our aldermen to get the restrictions imposed in the city. Hard as it is to believe, it likely will not be easy. Just look at the mayor's stand.