Smoking In Restaurants:
Part One: The Problem
By Lloyd M. Gordon, President
GEC Consultants, Inc.
Skokie, IL 60076
On May 22, 1997 a bipartisan group of members of Congress asked to convene a committee on national tobacco policy. In response to this request, the advisory committee on tobacco policy in public health was formed. The committee was composed of representatives of some of the major public health groups that had been leaders in the debate on tobacco control. The committee had as it=s mission the development of a comprehensive and rational public health policy toward tobacco containing clear goals and principles in order to provide a benchmark against which future public and private activities could be measured.
The committee formed five task forces on overlapping topics. They conferred independently and made their preliminary reports to the committee. They did not intend to report on past actions of the tobacco industry nor on the harm that it had done. It was not intended to recommend how tobacco legislation or compensation programs for past injury should be handled. It was not a report on the past. Rather, in keeping with the congressional charge, it was a blueprint for the future of tobacco policy and public health.
The committee made this statement at the conclusion of its study:
"We fully recognize that there are billions of dollars at stake here in hospital bills, compensation and liability costs. While these are important issues, we believe that this debate about the past should not distract us from solid plans for the future. Not one of these compensatory dollars will be well spent if our children repeat their elders mistakes, if adults continue their addiction, or if we all have smoke in our faces. As the national debate about tobacco continues, we urge all sites to keep their eyes clearly on this extraordinary opportunity for change."
Dr. Everett Coop, Surgeon General of the United States and David A. Kessler, M.D., Director of the Food and Drug Administration put out the following:
"Nicotine in cigarettes and smokeless tobacco has the same pharmacological effects as other drugs that FDA has traditionally regulated."
Indeed it was acknowledged that nicotine was extremely addictive.
"The vast majority of people use nicotine-containing cigarettes and smokeless tobacco to satisfy their craving for the effects of nicotine; that is, to satisfy their drug-dependence or addiction."
Many would argue, therefor, that the regulation of nicotine and its delivery is itself the most essential element of tobacco control activities. But other components of tobacco smoke are also toxic. The tar, carbon monoxide, and additives contained therein are dangerous to the health of those using tobacco and those around them.
Second hand smoke and its danger to health
Second hand or environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) is no longer considered just an unpleasant side effect of cigarette smoking. Scientific evidence now indicates that nonsmokers become seriously ill or die because of exposure to the toxic smoke produced by other peoples' active smoking and the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency has identified ETS as an agent known to cause cancer in humans. ETS is believed to cause tens of thousands of deaths each year and to cause or aggravate cardiovascular and pulmonary illness is hundreds of thousands additional individuals. ETS is of particular concern with regard to children. Children are powerless to control their exposure to ETS and yet, because of their young age, are most adversely effected by exposure to the agent. The EPA estimates that exposure to ETS from parental smoking alone causes as many as 300,000 lower respiratory infections per year in infants under the age of 18 months.
Legislation to control second hand smoke stirs controversy
Legislation has been introduced at various levels of local and state governments that need enforcement by local and state to eliminate exposure to second hand smoke. These include the following proposals:
- Smoking must be banned in all work sites and in all places of public assembly especially those in places in which children are present
- Smoking should be banned in outdoor areas where people assemble such as serving lines, seating areas at sports stadiums and arenas
- Smoking should be banned in dining and drinking places.
Now a comprehensive public education and public awareness program about the dangers of ETS has not actually been funded nor implemented by local state and federal levels of government. Until the recent allocation by states of tobacco settlement funds to local agencies, there were little or no funds available for ETS.
The great debate is:
"Can restaurants effectively become nonsmoking enterprises without suffering economic disaster?"
Mr. Lloyd M. Gordon, President of GEC Consultants, Inc. has an MBA from the University of Chicago. He has concepted more than 390 restaurants and has been consulting for over 44 years. He helps people enter the restaurant industry, points the way to profitability, and helps keep them successful. To discuss "Smoking in Restaurants: Part One: The Problem" he can be reached at 847-674-6310.
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