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For the non-smoking public, nothing takes the luster off a night out on the town with friends or a dinner with the family like a smelly, smoke-filled environment. But even worse than a foggy social atmosphere is the actual harm that second-hand cigarette smoke does to the lungs and circulatory system of those who inhale it. It’s a condition the public and many public officials are getting serious about — including those in North Carolina.
Senate lawmakers stepped up for better public health last week when they gave preliminary approval, voting 26-16, to ban smoking in the state’s bars and restaurants. We urge the Senate to pass the final legislation, which is expected to come to a vote this week.
The Senate’s action and companion legislation in the N.C. House that passed recently reflect growing emphasis on a more healthy environment for the state’s residents and visitors. The target is second-hand smoke and the threat it poses to patrons of these businesses. Our legislators’ actions are easily justified.
According to The American Lung Association, citing a Surgeon General report, “scientific evidence indicates that there is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke…. Secondhand smoke causes almost 50,000 deaths in adult non-smokers in the United States each year, including approximately 3,400 from lung cancer and 22,700-69,600 from heart disease. …” And more specific to the North Carolina legislation: “Levels of secondhand smoke in restaurants and bars were found to be 2 to 5 times higher than in residences with smokers and 2 to 6 times higher than in office workplaces.”
Plainly put, it’s just unhealthy to be around smokers, but especially in confined areas like bars and restaurants.
Faced with a preponderance of scientific evidence about tobacco and tobacco-related illness and deaths, North Carolina lawmakers couldn’t have come to another conclusion or option. Nevertheless, this legislation marks a fundamental, and deeply entrenched policy shift in North Carolina where the relationship between government and a traditionally cherished state institution goes back more than a century. The state’s historical connection to tobacco and the economic benefits it has fostered aren’t easily ignored. Even more fundamental is a long history of public support for tobacco in this state.
Though the heyday of big tobacco is past, the crop and those who grow, process and sell it remain tied to a lucrative product. North Carolina is still the nation’s top producer of tobacco, accounting for more than $500 million in farm income annually. Over the years, billions of dollars from tax revenues off the sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products have funded projects across the state, from its university system to publicly-funded hospitals to an array of other institutions and causes that serve the public.
Majorities in both houses of the Legislature are acutely aware of the state’s historical and economic connection to tobacco. They are, nevertheless, moving counter to tobacco, swayed by the larger and more responsible cause of public health — and the human and medical costs tied to tobacco. Each year more than 12,000 residents of North Carolina die from diseases related to smoking. Additionally, the state’s annual health care costs directly tied to smoking comes to about $2.46 billion.
Human suffering and loss have driven a wedge between the state and tobacco — an institution considered good for N.C.’s economy in a former era, but in the current one, a plague on public health. Supportive action by lawmakers this week should drive that wedge a little deeper.