Spring Break
Editorial
Ban is a step in the right direction
Issue date: 1/26/09 Section: Opinion
Like cities all over the country since the beginning of the new millennium, College Station has finally joined the ranks of the smoke-free cities. Also flanking them in the newly fresh Texan air are big cities like Austin, Dallas, San Antonio and Houston, in addition to many smaller towns.
The decision has been disputed for some time. In the College Station City Council meeting on Thursday, both sides were presented by officials, inluding physicians and local business owners, as well as bar patrons and concerned citizens. After much debate, the ban, which includes bars, restaurants and workplaces, was passed in a unanimous 6-0 vote. As of Feb. 1, smokers will have to stay at least 10 ft. away from the entrance to any one of these edifices.
While the right to smoke is a legal, personal choice, so is the right to eat or converse unmolested by secondhand tobacco fumes. At 50,000 deaths in the U.S. each year, as reported by the American Lung Association, smoking bans can do nothing but decrease thousands of unnecessary deaths to people who have made their own personal choice not to smoke. There is a time and a cause to exercise the freedom of personal expression, but a public place where one's method of personal expression may cause inadvertent harm to an innocent bystander is not necessarily the place.
The decision has been disputed for some time. In the College Station City Council meeting on Thursday, both sides were presented by officials, inluding physicians and local business owners, as well as bar patrons and concerned citizens. After much debate, the ban, which includes bars, restaurants and workplaces, was passed in a unanimous 6-0 vote. As of Feb. 1, smokers will have to stay at least 10 ft. away from the entrance to any one of these edifices.
While the right to smoke is a legal, personal choice, so is the right to eat or converse unmolested by secondhand tobacco fumes. At 50,000 deaths in the U.S. each year, as reported by the American Lung Association, smoking bans can do nothing but decrease thousands of unnecessary deaths to people who have made their own personal choice not to smoke. There is a time and a cause to exercise the freedom of personal expression, but a public place where one's method of personal expression may cause inadvertent harm to an innocent bystander is not necessarily the place.
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