Whenever the tobacco industry touches public health issues, tobacco always gets burned. In fact, the history of tobacco in America can be viewed as a slow awakening by a sleepy public to the fact nicotine is a drug and tobacco is a poison. People have intuitively known it for a century. Now the data is flowing in to back it up.

Scotland recently banned smoking in pubs and bars. Naysayers said it would have little effect on health and it would hurt business. But just the opposite proved to be true. Now the push is to pull tobacco from public places. The debate will rage, but you can bet health officials will end up with science and the figures on their side.

In Utah, several measures are being considered. One would make it unlawful for an adult to smoke in a closed car when there are children inside. We have backed that initiative. Now, the Salt Lake City Council is looking to install an ordinance that would ban smoking in the city's 72 parks, Library Square, Washington Square, the cemetery and other venues that are owned and operated by taxpayers.

We can get behind that push as well.

The proposal, again, has the facts on its side. Secondhand smoke has been proven to be as deadly as smoking itself. And parents don't want people huffing and puffing in the faces of their youngsters at ball games or during gatherings in public places.

As with other such proposals, the glitch is in oversight. Where will the city get enough manpower to enforce the ordinance?

Our reply is the city should enforce what it can, but just the presence of a sign stating that smoking in the area may result in a $299 fine will prohibit enough smokers from lighting up that the regulation will have a positive effect.

Some have also raised the concern that banning secondhand smoke does nothing to lower the level of other contaminants in the air that can be just as damaging.

Our response to that should be obvious. They are right. That's why public officials should do what they can to limit secondhand smoke, then work to purge the air of other poisons.