HEALTH WATCH : Blow Away the Smoke

The cigarette makers have grown fond in recent years of hoisting high the banner of so-called individual rights to counter growing concern about use and exposure to their dangerous product. Equal access, they argue, guarantees that smokers have the right to inhabit the same space as nonsmokers, apparently no matter what the consequence.

But cigarette manufacturers’ dogged attempts to inject ideology into this debate barely conceal their unvarnished fear for the economic health of their enterprise. In the absence, then, of high principles, and given cascading scientific evidence as to the clear threat posed by secondhand smoke, lawmakers, whether in Sacramento or Washington, who continue to oppose reasonable smoking restrictions can offer no credible defense to charges that they are “bought and paid for” by tobacco money.

Today the 24 members of the House health and environment subcommittee will vote on HR 3434, sponsored by Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles). The bill would restrict smoking in most commercial buildings, public and private, to separately ventilated rooms. Proposed amendments will exempt private clubs and, perhaps, bars.

Five former surgeons general, the current surgeon general and the major medical groups support Waxman’s bill. But so, too, does the Building Owners Management Assn., McDonald’s, Arby’s and, indeed, the National Council of Chain Restaurants.

Yet today’s vote is expected to be close. Instead, this bill should pass overwhelmingly.