Tobacco Documents Online

Frisco. ~votes.an antiddte to smoking poison s()C'A RATON, Fla:-It is not surprising that San Franciscans, who are out on the cutting edge of many things goodland bad; have declared what is in truth a new civii right. - I refer to the right of'peoplie not to be poisoned by those who use cigarettes and cigars. or smoke a pipe, and defile the only.au that. non•smokers have to breathe: After a IDavid+vs:-Goliath struggle inwbich the tobacco industry pumped' into San Francisco $IS {or every 31 raised by the freedom- from,tDeir-smoke forces, San Francisco voters approved by a narrow margin : Proposition P, which gives non-smok,ers almost total protec- tion in the workplace. I sati hooray! I hopeiervently that~t6ousands.of communit'ies will quickly pass similar legislatiom Pur simply; the San 1 Francisco ordinance requires employers to' make a: rangements thu satisfy noasmoking esnployes; even if that means banntng smoking altogetl3er. ~ . . . ' : The tobacco ptstiers pumped money in behind the argument that all! "San F'rancisratis Agatnst, Government Intrusion" would opt to continue a sort of laissez faire policy. But'a majority of San Francisco voters had come to understand: that the real "intruders," heavily armed' with tobaeco,, are the ones who: push tar and nicotine and eventual bad health into the lungs, beatts„ wombs o(ianocmt non- smokers. I!. 11 did' not onderstand the force of naked greed;'T wouldn+t be- lieve,that! the tobacco industry would spend so much money trying to deny Americans the right not to have to breathe someone else's acrid smoke. C People go to jat7 for lacing the cookies of unwanting and un- 'ting people with L.SD. They, would go to prison for lite if they u. -0 a car upu a house~and stuck a hose from the exhaust insidC kiflmg the occupants witlt carbon~mononide. Studies are sbowing,that ' when a pregnant woman~must ingest day, after day air that arrogzntly . indifferent smokers have turned into foulness, her unborn baby may b'e cnpplbdl ~ Yes. arnrgantly indifferent Tbe hooked ehain.snroker is about the. tudest of' all the kinds and clssses 61 people I see. And the most 1 outrageously uncarin forttie rights and'eomforts of others seems to Qe the three-packs-aay woman. 1 go to elegant dinners at Washington embassies where these bejeweled, sashaNing barbecue pits are barely in~their seats before they pull out a thnee-inch bolder4,a super-long cigarette and a rubN- studded ligAter. Tbea tbry.'prroceed to rum tbe meais of half i the people at their tables: •- Obviously ff ' these women cannot accept the mountain of evi- dence that their cigaretntK end:nger Their bt;+tL, t.`.r:.: iu.::ui;. t;;Eir; lives: they won't believe that their smoke damages. someone who merely, tworks or dines nearby. How many times have diners who are allergac to smoke gone too an excellent and costly restaurant'ttr find that' before they have fur ished the appetiaer, ttiey are thr~oan into an embarrassmg spell of sneezing by smoke from a nearba table*' Given the ruthless greedlo! the tobacco industro and the insensi- tisity and'arrogance of most heavy smokers, tbere is no choice but to have government "intrude"'at every leveL I've long had "smoke cotain; out of my ears" about this business of other peop!e pumying,smoke into my nostrils. tl~roat, eyes: lungs. even though J'detest it. Well. San Franci:ce has said to smokers: "OK. you're a free person. You're free to smoke as long as you ido it on a coffee break, at luncistime. after work• but only, wbenever and whenever you will not force non-smoking workers to become involuntary participants in your tustM1h'abit." This is one time when the nation ought to follow San Franciaco'ss kad. (c) by and permission of News AtttericalSyndicate r•: P-5

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