Communities Should Be Able to Pass Air Laws

MORE AMERICANS under the age of 85 are now dying of cancer than of heart disease. While most of us would prefer a third option, there is some good news in this new statistic.

First of all, while cancer now outranks heart disease as a cause of death, deaths from both diseases are declining. Death from heart disease, however, is falling faster than other causes, including cancer.

Most important to note is the single biggest reason for the decline in both diseases – a drop in the number of smokers. From 1965 to 2000 the percentage of adults who smoke fell dramatically from 42 percent to 22 percent. The federal government has set a goal of cutting the adult smoking rate to just 12 percent by 2010.

That may be a bit optimistic for Illinois, where 24.3 percent of adults and almost 30 percent of high school students still engage in the nasty habit of smoking cigarettes. While those numbers are bad enough, what is worse is this state’s rather permissive attitude toward smoking.

JUST RECENTLY, the American Lung Association issued its annual report card to the states concerning smoking. Illinois earned a big fat “F” in three of the four categories rated.

“This report should be a wake-up call to the legislature and Governor Blagojevich about the status of tobacco control in Illinois. The Illinois Clean Indoor Air law is very weak, and prevents local communities from passing stronger ordinances to protect the health of their residents.

Approximately 53,000 non-smoking Americans die from secondhand smoke each year. No one in Illinois should have to breathe toxic fumes when visiting or working in a public establishment.

The time is now to pass a smoke-free law that will save lives,” reads a statement from the Lung Association.

We strongly agree. We have said it before, but trust us, we will say it again and again and again until something changes. It is simply unconscionable that Illinois refuses to allow its local communities to pass stricter anti-smoking laws.

LET’S PRETEND the federal goals for curbing smoking are met here in Illinois, but no improvements are made in the Illinois Clean Indoor Air law. That would mean 12 percent of those who smoke could still foul the air of the remaining 78 percent of nonsmokers in restaurants throughout much of Illinois.

And even if nearly 80 percent of the people in Springfield, or most other Illinois cities and towns, wanted their city councils to pass a tougher anti-smoking law, they would be barred from doing so by state law.

That’s because when the law was put in place in 1990, the state decided that only those 21 communities with existing clean-air ordinances would be allowed to pass anything tougher than the state law.

That caveat makes it easier for the tobacco lobbyists to do their job. They need not worry about putting out prairie fires of anti- smoking sentiment. Instead they can spend all their time – and money – under the Capitol dome making sure Illinois’ state clean-air law is not made any more stringent.

We’d much rather make things tougher on the tobacco lobbyists by allowing more restrictive local ordinances. We think that might be a key to see those cancer and heart disease death rates continue to fall.