Physicians Applaud and Urge Wider Pasadena Smoking Ban
Recent UC research shows absolutely no decline in the restaurant business in California where communities have banned smoking in restaurants. So it is puzzling why the owners of local restaurants believe restrictions on smoking will harm them (Times, April 23).
Only 20% of Californians currently smoke. The other 80% don’t, and increasingly they don’t want to be exposed to a toxic mixture--tobacco smoke--containing such things as tar, nicotine, carbon monoxide, cadmium, nitrogen dioxide, ammonia, benzene, formaldehyde, arsenic, cyanide and hydrogen sulfide.
That 400,000 people die annually from the direct effects of smoking and another 53,000 succumb to the effects of secondhand smoke should surprise no one.
The 10,000 members of the Los Angeles County Medical Assn. are pleased that the Pasadena City Council approved restricting smoking in enclosed workplaces. However, we would like to see the prohibition on smoking extended to eating establishments.
GLENN D. LITTENBERG M.D.
President, Pasadena District
Los Angeles County Medical Assn.
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