Clean Air v. Lap Dancing

As far as I am concerned, the bottom line in setting government goals and the toughest decisions elected officials are required to make lies in setting priorities - lies in determining which of hundreds of needs are more essential.  Are good roads more important than an efficient way to collect and dispose of trash and garbage?  Are police and public safety issues more important than public health issues?  Is hiring more firemen more important than funding a youth recreation program?

Sometimes the right answer is obvious. Sometimes deciding the “right thing to do” is as difficult as slicing and splicing human hair.

Sometimes elected officials get it right.  And sometimes they get it wrong.

Such is the case of an issue that DeKalb County Commissioners have deferred for two weeks.  That is when the County Comprehensive Smoking Ban will be put to a vote.

The DeKalb County Health Department and a task force of knowledgeable and concerned members representing a broad and diverse cross section of health professionals, elected officials and concerned citizens have spent months working to construct a comprehensive smoking ban ordinance for approval by the DeKalb County Commission.

 Last week it was reported that the County Commission was on the verge of killing a proposal that is designed for the sole purpose of saving lives by protecting young children, employees of establishments that permit smoking, the elderly, and all those with existing respiratory problems from the clearly established dangers of second hand smoke.

A proposal that would demonstrably save lives is a priority that should be so high on the agenda of all elected officials that it would be difficult to come up with a single rational reason not to approve the measure.

And apparently no rational reason has been offered. 

So why would the Commission be on the verge of defeating such a proposal?  Because adult establishment owners say that it would be bad for their business.  Apparently free flowing alcohol and the opportunity to watch scantily clad women do lap dances is not enough to satisfy patrons of "adult" establishments.  They must also be allowed to exercise their self-proclaimed right to smoke. 

Once again reducing the pros and cons of the issue to a matter of priorities ... the question becomes: which is more important ... saving lives and protecting the health of DeKalb County residents or protecting the profit stream of establishments that claim smoking is essential to their successful operation. 

In 2008 the percentage of Americans who smoke cigarettes fell below 20 percent for the first time since the mid-1960s. Today the vast majority of Americans are non-smokers, and by extension that means that the majority of DeKalb County residents,  including patrons of adult establishments, are non-smokers.  One could effectively argue that since the majority of the clientele of adult establishments are non-smokers, business would be improved by creating a smoke-free environment. 

Ireland, notorious for the omnipresence of authentic corner pubs, would seem to be the last country on earth to pass a national smoking ban, but they were actually the first country to do so.  If smoking can be banned in all the pubs in Ireland, surely members of the DeKalb County Commission can bring themselves to  require it in Dekalb County.

Let’s weigh the pros and cons one more time.  Approving a smoking ban to protect residents from second hand smoke would improve health, save lives, help smokers quit the habit and reflect the fact that non-smokers represent an 80 percent majority of the population.  Since elected officials typically are concerned about representing the majority of their constituents, this would seem to be a no-brainer for them.

If you believe that saving lives is a higher priority than protecting adult establishment’s profits, contact DeKalb County Commissioners and tell them to approve a comprehensive smoking ban for DeKalb County.