Smoking policy would offer protection

2 LETTERS

GEORGE ABRAHAM MD, MPH
President, Worcester District Medical Society

Worcester

As a practitioner of public health, I am disappointed by the persistent ambivalence on the proposed workplace smoking ban, as seen in an editorial, “Butt out” (Telegram & Gazette, May 3). There appears to be no dispute in the scientific community that secondhand smoke poses a serious health risk. 

In its Ninth Report on Carcinogens, the Public Health Service’s National Toxicology Program identified secondhand smoke as a known human carcinogen (UJS. DHHS, 2000). Statewide surveys have consistently shown that people believe secondhand smoke is harmful.

Secondly, just as we require a sanitary code of adequate cooking and refrigeration of meats to ensure the destruction of pathogens, we should view a smoking ban in the workplace as making the environment safer for us and our co-workers. In our society, adults have a clearly defined legal right to smoke. However, where a smoker exhales is already restricted. I doubt most people would be in favor of turning back the clock to another era when smoking was allowed in schools, hospitals and airplanes.

The current smoking ordinance in Worcester bans smoking in restaurants without bars, but not in restaurants with bars, in retail stores, but not in many other work sites. Adoption of a new smoking ordinance would offer equal protection to all workplaces in the city of Worcester. The genie of secondhand smoke cannot be put back into the bottle. It is time for a breath of fresh air.

LEONARD J. MORSE MD
Commissioner
JAMES G. GARDINER
Director, Department of Public Health
Worcester

We take exception with an editorial entitled, “Butt Out” (Telegram & Gazette, May 3). Good health depends, in large part, on good personal habits, and it’s the responsibility of government to legislate sound health principles when society fails to protect itself. Surgeon General Luther Terry, 40 years ago, clearly reported the harmful effects of smoking. At that time, 40 percent of adults smoked. Today, two generations later, despite widespread promulgation of this indisputable evidence, 20 percent of adults still smoke.

Children and adolescents are lured to smoke and once they begin, they become addicted. There’s absolutely no salutary benefit from direct or indirect tobacco smoke, and everyone’s well-being will be enhanced by its elimination from the workplace and all eating and drinking establishments.

And, over time, health care expenditures will decrease, as the result of diminishing co-morbidity. The real trouble with smoking is starting.