Protecting the Nonsmoker

Annual Smokeouts such as the one last week--along with doctors’ warnings, nagging family members and U.S. surgeon general reports--all contribute to the general public health by encouraging smokers to give up their unhealthy habit.

Also helping to reduce the hazards of smoking, for smokers and nonsmokers alike, are the restrictive smoking policies being enacted by government and private industry. The restrictions that set the ground rules for lighting up in public places, restaurants and work areas, are especially important because they are aimed at protecting the nonsmoker from the well-documented dangers of inhaling secondhand smoke.

Many studies have linked tobacco smoke with lung cancer and other health problems in nonsmokers. The American Lung Assn. has estimated that 34 million Americans are sensitive to tobacco smoke, and scientists at the American Heart Assn.’s annual meeting last week in Anaheim reported that boys of parents who smoke at home face greater risks of heart disease as adults.

Those are compelling reasons to protect nonsmokers from the dangers being blown into the air by people pursuing their smoking habit. It’s not a smoker’s rights issue, it’s a public health issue, and one that government and private industry should aggressively seek to control. In cases where they have, smokers have been most cooperative in observing restrictions that restrict smoking to designated areas, often outside the building.

But cities have been moving too slowly to curtail the hazards to nonsmokers. Of the 27 cities in Orange County, including newly incorporated Mission Viejo, just 11 have adopted formal smoking policies. The others should also, without further delay.

In the meantime, the private sector shouldn’t sit back and wait for laws to be passed. Business firms benefit from adopting smoking restrictions if in no other way than reduced insurance claims, and they should adopt policies to protect their nonsmoking employees.

Government and private firms should also offer no-smoking classes to help employees who do want to quit or cut down. (The lung association is holding 36 classes a year for companies whose employees want to quit.)

Only about one out of every four adults smoke, and the number is decreasing. American Cancer Society officials believe the number of smokers in Orange County has been cut in half since the 1979 estimate of 630,000. Still, that’s more than 300,000 people lighting up every day and exposing their neighbors to potentially lethal secondhand smoke.