Push for a smokeless world

Even in their Hollywood heyday, cigarettes were suspect. They were called "coffin nails" more than 60 years ago. And in the 1960s, when Bob Newhart did his famous phone call to Sir Walter Raleigh routine ("What's that, Walt? You roll leaves up, put them in your mouth and set them on fire?") the silliness of the habit was brought into high relief.

From the beginning, Americans somehow knew — and often ignored — the effects of tobacco smoke.

But no longer.

Local opponents of smoking are now asking the Utah legislature to ban smoking not only in public venues, but private businesses as well. The ban would especially affect lodges and country clubs. Some hotel rooms and areas of the international airport would be excluded.

The hard push is coming from Utahns for a Tobacco-Free Workplace and would broaden a previously proposed ban that failed in the general session earlier this year. But the "never say die" attitude signals lawmakers and smokers alike that smoking opponents are out to drive a stake into the heart of big tobacco. Eight states now ban smoking in pubs and restaurants. Utah is among them — though, interestingly, most Utahns are nervous about the all-out ban. They feel if smoking is indeed a legal pastime, then government should not start meddling in the affairs of people who want to indulge.

The whole debate comes down to weighing the demands of public health against private rights. The more adamant people are saying a person's right to smoke "ends at my lungs." If the health of one person in, say, 2,000 at a country club is damaged by unwanted secondhand smoke, he or she becomes a legitimate victim.

We applaud those who would filter out cigarette smoke. Looking back 50 years, the recklessness of allowing people to smoke next to babies on airplanes and in theaters looks irresponsible. Perhaps, 50 years from now, the amount of smoking still permitted will look just as foolhardy.

For now, however, the truth is the public service spots don't lie. Inhaling smoke kills. And just because people happen to be in a lodge instead of a schoolroom doesn't change that fact. No one has a right to poison the air. Yes, personal liberties need to be considered. But there is also a reason tobacco has been under siege for the past 20 years. Americans are tired of inhaling clouds of carcinogens. Keeping a deadly contamination out of private businesses seems like a responsible task for a legislature to undertake.