NO SMOKING IN BARS! WHO WOULD HAVE THUNK IT. SMOKE HAS FILLED THE AIR
IN THOSE SANCTUARIES OF SELF-ABUSE FOR LONGER THAN I HAVE BEEN GOING INTO
THEM. SALOONS HAVE ALWAYS BEEN ASSOCIATED WITH TOBACCO USE, FROM THE DAYS
OF SPITTOONS AND CHAW STAINS TO THOSE OF ASH TRAYS AND TABLES WITH CIGARETTE
BURNS.
The chaw stains may have been more unsightly than the cigarette burns, but
the possibility of being hit by a wayward tobacco juice-loaded hocker was
much less dangerous than the insidious toxic gas from the more glamorized
drug-dispensing cigarette.
So close has been the association of smoking with bars that some smokers
are claiming that their rights are being violated. They claim the government
is being fascist or communistic, or some kind of dictatorial ogre by restricting
their "right to smoke" wherever and whenever they want.
Actually, the policy recognizes the deadliness of secondhand smoke and the
rights of non-smokers to minimize their exposure to tobacco-polluted air.
The tobacco industry can be counted on to continue its opposition to the
law in the courts, in direct and indirect advertising and at the grassroots
level. It is up to all of us to do what we can to ensure that the law does
what it is supposed to do. This can be done by reporting any infractions,
any bars that permit smoking, to the Health Department. A hot-line for reporting
delinquent bars has been established . Call BREATH in Sacramento at (916)739-8925
or your local Health Department, ask for the Tobacco Education Program.