Ban smoking in bars, casinos
I am pleased to learn that legislation to eliminate smoking at state bars and casinos has been introduced in the Pennsylvania House with bipartisan sponsorship.
When the Clean Indoor Air Act was finally approved in 2008, it was riddled with exemptions, the most prominent of which was the one carved out for casinos, the thinking no doubt being that the gambling addiction goes hand in hand with nicotine dependence.
I doubt that any state legislator would propose that certain establishments should be exempted from the provisions of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) or that they would endorse allowing certain restaurants to forgo periodic inspections to ensure proper sanitation, yet where casinos are concerned, the message from the General Assembly was that workers who sought good jobs at these establishments would be forced to choose between a making a living and their health.
The question is whether our elected officials will do the right thing or will continue their pattern of bowing to powerful special interests. The ugliness of special interest rule in Pennsylvania is evidenced by the survival of the remnants of Prohibition through state liquor stores, a law which bars automobile dealerships from doing business on Sundays, and the outsized influence of the gun lobby.
One of the many errors in judgment of my longtime State Rep., John Maher, a smoker, was to vote against the Clean Indoor Act. He would have had us continue to allow individuals to inflict a Class A carcinogen on others in stores, restaurants, and workplaces, to have restaurant hosts continue to ask patrons, “Smoking or non-smoking?” Would most of us wish to return to those days? History has proven Rep. Maher dead wrong.
It would be a breath of fresh air for the General Assembly to send legislation to Gov. Wolf to protect workers and patrons at all public establishments and it would offer the ancillary benefit of making the lethal pursuit of smoking even less accepted and “cool” than it has become.
Oren M. Spiegler is a resident of Upper St. Clair.