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Remove Exemption, OK Smoking Ban

Posted on: Wednesday, 18 January 2006, 18:02 CST

SUPPOSE YOU are concerned about the presence of radon in your basement, so you hire a professional air tester to check. Now suppose that the person you hire completes the job and hands you a report detailing your basement's levels of carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide and lead.

He says your basement passes with flying colors; that the levels of carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide and lead in the air of your basement are virtually identical to those outside.

"Yes," you ask, "but what about the radon?"

"Oh, radon," replies the tester. "Well, I don't really test for radon. But all these other levels look good. I'd say you're perfectly safe."

WE ENVISION a version of that scenario taking place in bars and restaurants around Springfield if the Springfield City Council fails tonight to remove a key exemption before voting on the proposed Springfield Clean Indoor Air Ordinance of 2006. Exemption "h" in the ordinance says the smoking ban would not apply to any bar or restaurant with an air cleaning system that can "meet the minimum outdoor air quality standards set by the United States Environmental Protection Agency" even when operating where people are smoking in the area of the cleaning system.

Mayor Tim Davlin favors keeping this exemption in the ordinance because he believes it offers "a glimmer of hope" to bar and restaurant owners who believe a ban on indoor smoking will hurt their businesses.

We believe keeping this exemption will usher in an era of ridiculous attempts to circumvent the ordinance and a period in which the "applicable local health department" (the Springfield Health Department for now) attempts to enforce air quality standards that do not include tobacco smoke and were never intended for use on indoor air.

"(W)E HAVE NO established standards for tobacco smoke in the indoor or outdoor environments," wrote Helen Tsiapas, a specialist with the Chicago office of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, in a letter to U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin.

In a letter to Ward 10 Ald. Bruce Strom, who has led the effort to ban indoor smoking in public places in Springfield, Illinois EPA Director Douglas Scott said the outdoor standards can't logically be applied to the ordinance before the city council tonight.

"Standards do exist for ozone, particulate matter, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, lead, as well as other standards to limit various hazardous air pollutants," Scott wrote, "but it is not likely that any of the standards for these pollutants would be applicable in the instances contemplated by the proposed ordinance."

In other words, the secondhand smoke not detected outdoors by an EPA test is the same secondhand smoke that would not be detected indoors.

THE ISSUE of getting secondhand smoke out of all public indoor spaces is based on scientific data that secondhand smoke is a health danger for nonsmokers who breathe it. Springfield has come so far in this effort that it would truly be a shame for this gaping loophole to remain. It also would be a betrayal of the vast majority of people who expect the city to protect them from this hazard, as cities and states across the country have already done.

We urge the Springfield City Council to remove this exemption tonight and then pass the Springfield Clean Air Ordinance of 2006. This is the most important public health measure in many years for Springfield. Don't allow one clause to cripple its intent.

Source: State Journal Register

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