re:TH!NK, the Lakeshore Tobacco Prevention Network: July 2010

Friday, July 23, 2010

Two gubernatorial candidates say they would repeal the statewide smoking ban. Let's hope for an unkept promise if either is elected.

An editorial from the Journal-Sentinel from July 22. Thought it had a lot of "common sense" in it.

alf-baked ideas get floated in election years all the time. The idea topping this year's list (it's still early) is repeal of the state's smoking ban. Both Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker and former congressman Mark Neumann, vying for the GOP gubernatorial nomination, say they'd sign a bill to do just that if either becomes governor.

What part of carcinogen, safe workplace or public health don't the candidates understand?
There is a perceived need in partisan campaigns to appeal to narrow bases of voters in primary elections - those most likely to be energized enough to turn out - but something to remember: Words hatched to attract these voters can come back to haunt in a general election. Most adults don't smoke these days and resent other people making them de facto smokers because of secondhand smoke.

Neumann said repealing the ban would not be a priority and is an issue that should be decided locally. Walker said the government shouldn't have been involved in the first place.
But a patchwork of smoking bans throughout the state should not be something to which anyone should aspire a return. A statewide ban took care of that.

And to the extent that feelings about Big Brother government and the primacy of free-market forces in deciding such issues animate the candidates, we'd simply argue that no worker should have to trade his or her health for a paycheck. We would no more wish a return to smoke-filled public places than we would a return to asbestos-filled workplaces. It is a workplace safety issue. And it is a public health issue.

After the state smoking ban went into effect on July 5, Walker said it was too early to seek exemptions to it. After Neumann said he'd repeal the law, Walker said he, too, would repeal it. Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, the likely Democratic nominee, supports the ban.

So, on the heels of the state instituting a measure that will likely decrease the number of heart attacks and mitigate other ills associated with secondhand smoke in Wisconsin, two candidates think the ban is a bad idea. That, in itself, is a bad idea.

In 2007, Walker banned smoking in or within 30 feet of any county building. His reasoning is still eminently reasonable today. He said nonsmokers shouldn't have to breathe secondhand smoke when they pass huddled smokers outside county buildings' doorways. Now, imagine all that smoke confined by walls and being breathed indoors.