Posted on 09/24/2002 3:38:19 PM PDT by SheLion
BOSTON (AP)--Smoking at work, including in bars and restaurants, would be banned in Boston under a proposal announced by the mayor Tuesday.
No worker should be forced to breathe the toxins in second-hand smoke, Mayor Thomas Menino said.
"It's a question of fairness," Menino told reporters. "The long-term health of the worker far outweighs any fleeting enjoyment smoking can give.
"You want to smoke? Go outside," he said.
Menino's request mirrors a law in California and pending legislation in New York City. Boston already requires restaurants to partition any smoking area or place it at least six feet from eating areas. The new regulations would effectively ban smoking everywhere in Boston but the outdoors and private homes or hotel rooms.
The Boston Public Health Commission has authority to pass health regulations, so a smoking ban doesn't need City Council approval, though public hearings will be held.
It's unknown how many workplaces still allow smoking in Boston and would be affected, said John Auerbach, the commission's executive director.
About 500 communities nationwide have total or partial public smoking bans, according to the Washington D.C.-based Action on Smoking and Health.
Anne Everly, a 34-year-old smoker, said there won't be any public places left where smokers can have a cigarette indoors, an important consideration during New England winters. She said smoking shouldn't be banned in bars.
"It seems like a reasonable enough compromise," she said.
Then, they can refuse service to whoever they feel do not fit the clientele that they want to serve.
The Public Health Commission can do it. Boston doesn't even need the City Council approval. Public hearing? Wonder how many will show up to protest........
For the time being. ~sigh......
It's so disheartening to hear people who call themselves conservative, and yet, are so dismissive of property rights that they think these smoking bans are just fine.
Non smokers shouldn't want the whole world, and neither do the smokers. There should be a place for us all. And it should be up to the business owner, NOT the government.
What's wrong with passing a law simply requiring businesses to post their smoking/no-smoking policy prominently at the entrance to the premises?
Then everyone knows what their getting in to from the outset and 25% of your fellow citizens still have places to go where they can eat, drink and indulge in their pleasure with like-minded individuals.
Alternatively, you are saying that you want to reserve your right to enter any establishment in the world and find that it's non-smoking, even if you've never heard of the place and have no intention of ever going there.
If the policy of an establishment was that it allowed smoking, you wouldn't go there, but I would. What's wrong with that?
I am a right wing zealot and I am all for inalienable rights. But as a non smoker, I loveThat's what you really meant, isn't it?being in ait when the government usurps the rights of property owners to create a smoke free restaurant or bar.
My dear Anne their is no compromise with these homofobe non-smokers...
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