PACKET EDITORIAL, Jan. 7
By: Packet Editorial
The most popular new year’s resolution this year, according to those who keep tabs on such things, is to quit smoking. Losing weight, saving money, getting a better job, exercising more, cleaning out the closet all popular (and noble) sentiments, to be sure, but none ranks quite as high on the list of things to do in 2005 as breaking free from that nasty tobacco addiction.
So it seems to us this would be the ideal time to revisit the issue of placing a ban on smoking in public places. After all, if people who smoke have made quitting their number-one resolution this year, the least the rest of us can do is help make it easier for them and, at the same time, make life considerably more pleasant for us by lifting the noxious and unhealthy cloud of tobacco smoke from restaurants, bars and other public places.
The Princeton Regional Health Commission tried to do just that back in 2000, adopting a ban on smoking in most public and quasi-public indoor spaces including restaurants, bars, private clubs, hotels and offices. But Mercer County Superior Court Judge Linda Feinberg overturned the ban, ruling that state law permits only the Legislature, and not municipalities, to regulate smoking in public places.
Since then, there has been virtually no movement toward making public places in Princeton or the rest of New Jersey smoke-free. A couple of bills have been introduced in the Legislature, notably by Princeton Borough Assemblyman Reed Gusciora, that would give municipalities the power to adopt ordinances that are more restrictive than state law, but they have gone nowhere. A coalition of frightened bar and restaurant owners, aggressive smokers’ rights groups and, of course, the powerful tobacco industry has snuffed out any effort to get these bills out of committee, much less through either house of the Legislature.
Meanwhile, California the only jurisdiction in the country that had a comprehensive smoking ban in effect when Princeton initiated its ill-fated effort has been joined by 10 other states: Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Delaware, Florida, South Dakota, Utah and Idaho. In addition, nearly 2,000 county and municipal laws have been enacted that restrict smoking in public places; more than 300 of them, in 28 states, have 100-percent smoke-free provisions for workplaces, restaurants and/or bars.
The New Jersey Group Against Smoking Pollution has tallied more than 300 resolutions adopted in the past nine months by government agencies, organizations and businesses across the state calling on the Legislature to give municipalities the authority to enact smoke-free ordinances. These include 106 resolutions passed by municipal governing bodies, 108 by organizations, 74 by municipal boards of health, 16 by businesses and three by county boards of chosen freeholders.
In the face of such widespread sentiment for legislative action not to mention the growing body of scientific evidence of the dangers of secondhand smoke it is unconscionable that New Jersey continues to allow unfettered smoking in restaurants, bars and other public places. The Legislature would do the Garden State a great service by doing what 11 other legislatures have already done place a comprehensive statewide ban on smoking in public places. Or, if our lawmakers don’t have the courage to take such a bold and decisive step, the least they should do is give municipalities the power to enact their own bans as Princeton tried to do, and would no doubt do again if given the statutory authority.
The beneficiaries wouldn’t just be the growing majority of the population that doesn’t smoke and doesn’t want to breathe the air that’s befouled by those who do. They would also include all those smokers whose most admirable new year’s resolution is to live healthier, tobacco-free lives. Let’s kick off 2005 by helping them kick the habit.