January 16, 2007
Smoking Ban Roundup: Good News, Bad News
Two weeks into the D.C. smoking ban, and we've got news, both good and bad, to report.
Smoking Bans are Fleeting: This month's issue of The Atlantic brings us news that will be music to the ears of the District's disgruntled smokers. According to the magazine, smoking bans have a long and rich history -- and are usually overturned. Whether Pope Urban VIII's proclamation of a worldwide smoking ban in 1624 or Adolf Hitler's German experiment in 1942, few smoking bans have survived the passage of time. But don't get too excited just yet, smokers. The Vatican's ban lasted until 1779, while a prohibition imposed by Russia's Czar Michael in 1634 lasted 32 years. (It bears mentioning that Michael's ban was overturned after a two-year stint during which smokers faced the death penalty.) You may get to smoke again one day in District bars, but you may also be a little old to be frequenting those bars by then. You win some, you lose some, right?
Seattle Smoking Foes Take On Buildings: Yes, the District smoking ban in bars is pretty much absolute (exemptions do exist for bars that lose a significant percentage of their business as a result of the ban), but it's not nearly as bad as what Seattle smokers may have coming their way. According to the Seattle Times, smoking foes are looking to push landlords in residential buildings to ban smoking in their units. But even if that pressure never comes to pass, Seattle's smokers still face a much more hostile environment than their District counterparts -- an initiative endorsed last year prohibits smoking within 25 feet of the entrance of any public place or work setting.
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I heart the no smoking ban. So much more enjoyable to be in a bar nowadays.
Yay! Another chance to participate in a 200-response flame war about the smoking ban!!
Hey, if Hitler supported it it can't be that bad.
There are some bars in SF that get around it by starting co-ops; apparently they're absolved from the law. Whisky Thieves is one of them. Wonder if that's the case elsewhere?
Interesting stuff, but really, the best they can come up with in terms of recent history is a 1942 Nazi Germany ban?
And I would disagree with your characterization that smoking bans are "usually" overturned. The Atlantic list is just a small sample of bans that pre-date the more recent efforts around the world.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_smoking_bans
And that list doesn't include all 34 states with some sort of ban on the books at the state or local level since 1990.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_smoking_bans_in_the_United_States
Flame on.
Try googling 'ban smoking in cars'.
These posts make me long for a gentrification or baseball stadium post.
Frankly, I don't want to hear any more about this ban until there is real news on it (affecting this Washington) An example might be which businesses filed and received exemptions due to loss of business, or if Fenty gets the level for such moved up to 15%.
Yes, these posts generally solicit lots of comments, but we've heard them all before. No one on either side is saying anything new (this comment included). So please, DCist, let it die.
Flame on.
Try googling 'car smoking ban'.
Sorry, but your writeup is very misleading about what is happening in Seattle. From the article:
In the past year, he says, he has received more calls from landlords asking what legal steps they must take to convert their buildings to being smoke-free. Valdez said the health department supports such voluntary efforts, but is not advocating for an expansion of the smoking ban to include apartment units.
There is no effort to enact laws which would ban smoking in private homes, and certainly no "measure" under consideration.
So he hated smoking, was a rabid vegetarian, and an enthusiastic gun control supporter? Sounds like this Hitler guy is your typical Ward One condo dweller.
I remember visiting SF shortly after the smoking ban went into effect there and the bartender at one place would rent ash trays in order to make money to pay the fine.
On another unrelated note, whatever happened to those poor people in Mt. Pleasant who wanted to build an access ramp into their house but HPRB would not let them?
I'm told that in New York, the bars know that the city doesn't send out inspectors after a certain hour...some bars, knowing that they essentially can't get caught because the enforcement is asleep at the switch, allow smoking after certain hours pretty regularly.
What's the enforcement of the DC laws like? Any loopholes to be found?
That paragraph on the Seattle Times article is totally misleading.
My memories of post-smoke-ban SF involve stepping into "smoke-easies" where each table had a can of Guinness half full of water that the customers used as ashtrays. That, and the sidewalks in front of other clubs being crowded with smokers huddled against the wind. There were places where there was literally nobody inside the bar. They were all outside smoking, including the barkeep.
Thanks to those that pointed out that I misstated what the Seattle Times reported. I've made the necessary changes.
OH TEH NOES!!~` Hitler supported a smoking ban. HITLER! HIIITTTLEEEEEEEER!!!!
"Seattle's smokers still face a much more hostile environment than their District counterparts -- an initiative endorsed last year prohibits smoking within 25 feet of the entrance of any public place or work setting."
This could also be phrased:
"Seattle's asthmatics and non-smokers face a much friendlier environment than their District counterparts -- an initiative..."
And smokefree laws are usually overturned? What exactly is the author smoking? The movement to bring smoking back to airplanes doesn't seem to have much momentum. The ONLY place smokefree laws have been overturned is where Big Tobacco dumps tons of money into the political process, and even then eventually the law comes back.
Indoor smoking in public places will be as archaic as spittoons in the not-too-distant future.
Enjoying DC's new smokefree law? Tell your story at Smokefree Stories.
How long until we have muggings of people standing outside bars having cigarettes? Homeless dudes have already figured out that they have a new captive audience on the sidewalks of DC.
You know, not to shoot the messenger, but -- it's interesting that historically, smoking bans have not lasted.
On the other hand, way to compare smoking bans enacted in the 17th and 18th century to modern bans (of the last 20 years or so) -- look, we know now just how risky smoking is, and how it contributes to cancer, emphysema, and other ailments. There was no medical justification before. Drawing an apples-to-apples comparison is dumb. Really, really dumb.
And I agree, the paraphrasing of that Seattle Times article is egregiously bad.
I think that the smoking ban should be enforced more. Did you know that 20 percent of people with asthma got it from smoking or second hand smoking