The front page of the New York Post ran a story today based on a interview I did with them yesterday about smokefree parks and beaches.  I would like to elaborate on what was written in the Post.

 

STATEMENT IN ADDITION TO THE NEW YORK POST ARTICLE

August 13, 2002

Joe Cherner

 

SmokeFree Educational Services, Inc., the largest smokefree advocacy group in the country, solidly supports Mayor Bloomberg and the City Council in their effort to provide ALL New York City workers with a safe, healthy, smokefree work environment.  ALL workers (including office, restaurant, bar, bingo, bowling, and nightclub workers) deserve a safe, healthy, smokefree work environment.  No one should have to breathe tobacco smoke pollution to hold a job, because it causes cancer and respiratory disease.  The health of bartenders is just as important as the health of others.  Bartenders are forced to breathe the equivalent of a half a pack a day in secondhand smoke, and that's not fair. 

 

In addition to smokefree workplaces, SmokeFree Educational Services, Inc. supports smokefree parks and beach legislation.  A handful of cities around the country have proposed and/or passed smokefree parks and beaches.  Although smokefree parks and beaches are not an employee health issue, they are a quality of life issue.

 

Up until now, government has faced a very easy decision about tobacco smoke pollution in public places. Government has decided for the most part that no one should have the legal right to make someone else sick.  Every worker deserves a safe, healthy, smokefree work environment. No worker should have to breathe something that causes cancer to hold a job.

But now, government must decide what to do when smoking pollution is merely a nuisance. Government constantly makes such decisions when one person's pleasure causes another person discomfort. For example, government bans loud music in a person's apartment when it bothers the neighbors. Government bans eating on the subways, talking in the library, pets in a restaurant, noisy nightclubs in a residential neighborhood, noisy trucks after certain hours, pungent odors which bother neighbors, adult video/book stores in certain neighborhoods, and loitering in public places.

Parks and beaches have lots of rules already too. For example, most parks ban loud music, bonfires, loitering after dark, dogs without leashes, nudity, and sex. Some also ban rock climbing, rollerblading, food selling, alcohol, and barbequing. Most beaches ban glass containers, nude bathing, sex on the beach, barbequing, throwing a hardball, and certain types of flyaway umbrellas. None of these things cause disease. Most of them are nuisances and quality of life issues.

The next wave of smokefree legislation will address the nuisance issue, the quality of life issue. Already some cities, like New York City, have banned tobacco smoke pollution in children's playgrounds. Smokers were throwing cigarette butts in sand boxes and children were putting them in their mouths. Many cities and companies have banned tobacco smoke pollution in front of building entrances. In New York City, Merrill Lynch, Chase, CNN, and others have posted "No Smoking In Front of This Entrance" signs outdoors in front of all of its buildings.

If you are from the media and would like to speak with me about this issue, email is best.  But my contact numbers are 212-912-0960 and 917-815-7200 (mobile phone).

 

Joseph W. Cherner, President
SmokeFree Educational Services, Inc.
http://www.smokefree.org

 

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful citizens can change the world.  Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."       Margaret Mead