Legion should let this smoking issue fade away
Sunday, September 14, 2008 12:54 AM PDT
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E-mail this articleSept. 14 Daily News editorial
A Bremerton American Legion Post’s attempt to carve out an exception to Washington’s voter-approved smoking ban for private clubs suffered another legal setback Thursday, when the state Supreme Court rejected its appeal of an unfavorable lower court decision. It was a narrow, 5-4 decision, though, prompting an attorney representing the legion post to consider an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
We hope the American Legion Post accepts Thursday’s decision as the last word. It would be doing both Washington taxpayers and its employees a good turn. The state high court got it right. Washington voters clearly intended to protect workers from the hazards of secondhand smoke when they voted overwhelming in 2005 to approve Initiative 901. The initiative did not contain an exception for employees of private clubs, and the court majority was wise not to write one into the law.
As Justice Mary Fairhurst, writing for the majority, noted, exempting private clubs with employees “would eviscerate much of the Act and interfere with the express intent of the voters, which was to protect employees regardless of whether their place of employment is a public place.”
Members of private clubs can choose to stay away from or limit their time in a smoke-filled environment. Employees often do not have that option — at least not practically. And the hazard is not insignificant. A study published last year in the American Medical Association reported that bar and restaurant workers who breathe secondhand smoke are 50 percent more likely to get lung cancer than workers in smoke-free environments.
Secondhand smoke is a well-documented health hazard. It contains more than 50 cancer-causing chemicals. Exposure to secondhand smoke can lead to heart disease, breast cancer and premature births, as well as lung cancer and other respiratory diseases. Federal health officials have estimated that each year secondhand smoke kills about 3,400 nonsmoking Americans from lung cancer, 46,000 from heart disease and 430 from sudden infant syndrome. A University of California, San Francisco study concluded that exposure to secondhand smoke is about 80 percent as harmful as being a smoker.
Given these risks, there can be no justification for subjecting nonsmoking employees to secondhand smoke. This is not a question of personal freedom. It’s a public health issue, pure and simple. Washington voters recognized that three years ago this fall, when they enacted this smoking ban. Wisely, the court majority has decided against weakening that ban at the expense of private club employees.
rosy wrote on Sep 14, 2008 11:18 AM:
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