The Empire Page

This ranks in the category of “you have to be kidding me”.  The Times-Union reported today that “the next goal in Mayor Bloomberg’s anti-tobacco crusade is to ban smoking at NYC parks and beaches.”

Let me get this straight.  Smokers already are not allowed to smoke in restaurants, even if the owner of the restaurant wants to designate it as a “smoker’s only restaurant”.  And there is a ban on smoking in public buildings and in some cases outside of public buildings.

As I’ve written before, I became a cigar smoker about seven years ago.  Being a non-smoker up to that point I fully sympathized with the ban of smoking in restaurants and public buildings.  Allowing non-smokers to breath second-hand smoke is wrong.  Originally restaurants were allowed to provide a smoking and a non-smoking section within their restaurant; and that option is now disappearing.  I can understand it.

Although I do agree with the ban on smoking in public buildings, I believe that a room for smoking with proper ventilation should be provided to accommodate the smokers who frequent these same public buildings.  If non-smokers have the right to a smoke-free environment, shouldn’t smokers have a right to a smoking environment?  Especially if it has no impact on non-smokers.

Now, this is especially true, in my humble opinion, when the public building houses Federal, State or local employees.  Listen to this; because of this ban, smokers are generally allowed to head outside the building several times a day to enjoy a smoke during their workday.  Now, keep in mind, the employee leaves their work stations, usually picks up a couple smoking buddies to join them, they take the elevator to the first or ground floor and then they walk  an appropriate distance from the building to smoke.  The cigarette can take from eight to ten minutes to smoke, and then the return trip starts back to the employee’s work station.  The entire journey can take from 15 to 20 minutes.  Smoking employees generally take from four to ten or more smoke breaks a day.  Now you do the math:  At the low end it would be one hour to as much as 3 hours or more.  Time taken away from doing the job they are hired to perform. Most of these public employees work a 7 ½ to 8 hour work day.  The loss of productivity could be astounding.  Now wouldn’t it make much more sense and be extremely cheaper to provide a smoking room with heavy duty ventilation on a few floors of the public building to accomodate these smokers and keep them at their workstations?  We need to stop the insanity, plus, smokers have as much right to smoke as non-smokers have a right not to have to breathe second-hand smoke.

Note:  Cigar smokers are not even included in this rant because the average cigar takes 45 minutes to an hour to smoke; and that amount of time would not be allowed in a single episode.

Getting back to NYC’s latest attempt to regulate our personal life in the name of the “public good”, is smoking in a public park in the great outdoors subjecting non-smokers to second-hand smoke?  Really?  When a smoker exhales or otherwise releases smoke into the atmosphere, doesn’t it immediately dissipate, especially if there is a breeze?  Of course it does.  Now in an enclosed space it’s a totally different story.  I mean, have I missed the huge public outcry about breathing in second-hand smoke in parks and on beaches?  Or does Mayor Bloomberg deem it unhealthy for a non-smoker to even see someone smoking?

It’s insane. And how will it ever be enforced?  It can’t be, which means it’s all for show.  Come on Mr. Bloomberg, you can do better than this.  You need to hire some new spin doctors.  You’re mayor of NYC for goodness sake and this issue is a major issue that shows up on your radar screen?