Story originally printed in the La Crosse Tribune or online at www.lacrossetribune.com

Published - Monday, July 07, 2008

Indoor smoking is on the wrong side of history

By DICK MIAL / La Crosse Tribune

You probably don’t want to read yet another editorial calling for a smoke-free workplace law for Wisconsin — including banning smoking in bars.

But how about a personal testimony from a former smoker who quit more than 20 years ago and who has struggled with heart disease ever since?

That would be me. And that also would be why I don’t think smoking in public is an issue of civil rights or individual rights. It’s a public health issue, plain and simple.

And the most recent study by the La Crosse County Health Department proves it. Researchers from the county and state went into 19 bars and restaurants with machinery to analyze the air quality.

Most of the places failed. Air quality was in the hazardous category for most. And you don’t have to be smoking to suffer the ill effects. Everyone in the building — including kids who were in there with their parents and workers — is put at risk because of the smoke.

Maybe it would help not to think of it as smoke. Think instead that you’re inhaling tiny particles that will hurt your heart and lungs at the same time they sting your eyes.

When I was growing up in Milwaukee in the 1950s and ’60s, all the adults in my life smoked — including my parents, their friends and most of my teachers. My scoutmaster smoked at scout meetings.

As a smoker, I never noticed how bad it was to be in a smoke-filled place. It was only after I quit for several years, that I really began to feel how awful it was to be in a smoke-filled room.

I never even knew how bad I must have smelled, with the stench of tobacco smoke on my hair and clothes. It really came home to me when I met an acquaintance to talk about something. I could literally smell him from across the room.

Iowa recently instituted a smoke-free workplace policy. A recent issue of the Des Moines Register had a comment from the manager of a Des Moines blues bar, who was going to have a Soviet flag flying in his place — to show that the government had no right to tell him he couldn’t have smoking in his bar.

Well, to steal a phrase from Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle, it’s pretty clear that the bar owner is on the wrong side of history. There is no doubt that indoor smoking in public places is on its way out.

The only question is: How long will it take?

Contact Opinion page editor Richard Mial at (608) 791-8232 or rmial@lacrossetribune.com.