Time to Butt In on Private Sector

Nearly two years ago, at the urging of the Orange County Chamber of Commerce, the county Board of Supervisors decided not to impose mandatory no-smoking regulations on Orange County businesses. The supervisors should not make the same mistake Wednesday when the issue comes back to them.

On May 21, 1985, the county board voted to strengthen an existing anti-smoking ordinance covering county-owned buildings and public places but excluded private workplaces, deciding instead to let business voluntarily regulate smoking. At that time, the supervisors warned the chamber that they would evaluate the voluntary effort in six months and enact a smoking ban if they weren’t satisfied.

Well, it has been almost two years and despite a more-than-fair chance to comply, the private sector’s voluntary response is inadequate. The only recourse is a county ordinance.

The frightening fact, supported by extensive scientific research, is that secondhand smoke from burning tobacco is dangerous for nonsmokers. The U.S. surgeon general reports that about 2,400 nonsmokers subjected to environmental smoke will get lung cancer each year. Equally disturbing is that about 15 out of every 100 deaths nationwide each year are smoking-related.

Faced with those dangers, nonsmoking employees on companies’ shop floors deserve the same protection against secondhand smoke that the county now provides in restaurants, theaters and meeting halls.

A county advisory committee favors extending the county smoking ordinance to the workplace. There is ample evidence that where such controls have been enacted the acceptance and compliance levels are high.

Some cities in the county, such as Laguna Beach and Newport Beach, already have enacted communitywide smoking controls. The others should follow. On Wednesday, the county supervisors should take a stand--no ifs, ands . . . or butts.