Once in a while, voters in all 39 counties of the state agree on something clear-cut and specific, the law is implemented, and is effective. Crazy, we know. But it’s important to remember we can get things done, for the greater good. Initiative 901 of 2005, which bans smoking in all public buildings and workplaces has been such a success, accomplishing, for the most part, what voters hoped it would.
The “Washington Smoke Free” law has had a “significant and positive impact on public health,” according to the Washington state Department of Health:
Air quality monitoring tests conducted by the American Lung Association before and after the law took effect revealed indoor air pollution decreased by 88 percent.
The rate of bar and restaurant employee exposure to secondhand smoke dropped from 29 percent in 2005 to about 3 percent in 2006.
The law also prompted many people to quit. During the month after the law’s implementation, the Washington state Tobacco Quit Line received a record number of calls.
Some businesses have gone beyond the law, banning smoking anywhere on their property, and adopting policies not to hire smokers. The majority of the state’s hospitals, and many across the country, have adopted such bans, or “100 percent smoke-free policies.”
These laudable policies will likely spread as businesses see smoking as a liability that harms the bottom line. (Not to mention the smoker.) Research shows that smokers take more sick days than non-smokers.
Some problems that have emerged from the law are insignificant compared to the gains made, but need to be addressed nonetheless. The prohibition of smoking within 25 feet of building entrances is problematic at businesses that have not banned smoking. Customers and employees often smoke a lot closer to entrances than 25 feet. This is a business problem, not a police problem, and the marketplace will no doubt eventually motivate all businesses to keep entrances smoke-free.
Along with hospitals, some college campuses have also banned smoking, including Everett Community College. Again, laudable, but an unintended consequence is that three or four blocks of public sidewalk behind the school have become a de facto smoking area, which is unfair to neighbors, including the elementary school next door.
No doubt many neighborhoods near smoke-free workplaces experience something similar. Simply sending smokers outside property limits puts them smack-dab in someone else’s air and public sidewalk space. Perhaps the state could prominently place the Washington state Tobacco Quit Line at such gathering spots.
In the big picture, smokers (and fewer of them) running out of places to smoke is an excellent thing, quite intended.
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