Duluth's efforts toward protecting all workers from the known health effects of secondhand smoke indeed present lessons learned. These lessons based on politics and the struggles in trying to define a bar vs. a restaurant should not overshadow the real reason for even considering a law to protect workers and the public from secondhand smoke and that is health.
Secondhand smoke kills. Every major scientific and medical organization -- including the American Lung Association the American Cancer Society, and the American Heart Association and the Surgeon General agree there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke.
The National Cancer Institute attributes 3,000 lung cancer deaths and up to 62,000 coronary heart disease deaths annually to exposure to secondhand smoke. Waitresses are four times more likely to die from lung cancer and 2.5 times more likely to die from heart disease compared to other women. These workers have a right to a breath clean air! Bar and restaurant workers should not have to trade health for a job.
Our community debated exemptions, ventilation, smoking after a certain evening hour and separate rooms for months, in spite of the overwhelming evidence that secondhand smoke is a health hazard.
My comments to a local reporter (as mentioned in a recent commentary in The Forum by Dan Hass of Duluth) "if you want to know what not to do, we've done it first" reflect those lessons learned as one of the first communities in Minnesota working toward smoke-free worksites for all employees. There have been no restaurants, including the "small businesses that give each neighborhood its unique character"... that have gone out of business over this law, several have changed ownership -- something that happens in all communities, smoke-free or not.
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The tax data provided by the city treasurer has shown growth in restaurants and bar/restaurants in Duluth over the past two years that the ordinance has been in effect. This data is public information, nothing we have "trumped up."
Private business owners that serve the public have hundreds of rules and regulations to comply with to insure the health and safety of the public. These many rules protect both customers and employees, ranging from storing and preparing foods at safe temperatures to making sure employees wash their hands to protect public health. We have every right to expect clean food, water and AIR when dining out.
The smoke-free ordinance in Duluth was voted on in a citywide referendum held in November 2001. It wasn't "anti-tobacco extremists" but the ordinary citizens of our community that supports smoke-free environments for both the public and employees.
McKone, Duluth, is senior director, tobacco control programs, American Lung Association of Minnesota. E-mail pat.mckone@alamn.org .
