Mapleheightspress.com - Smoke Signals: Cities should butt out of people's health choices

by Reporter Tim Troglen
I'm not a smoker.

But many of my closest friends are.

I like to go outside twice a day with some co-worker friends while they enjoy smoke breaks.

And while I have a touch of asthma, their smoke has never bothered me. It's nice to just get out of the newsroom, stretch my legs and have a few minutes of stress-relieving conversation with my pals.

However, if we worked at a different company or in a different city, things may be different.

Earlier this month North Royalton passed an ordinance which makes smoking on city-owned property, including parks, a minor misdemeanor, punishable by a $10 fine for the first offense.

And last year, Ohio banned indoor smoking in public places of employment.

Where will this stop?

I'm not a prude, nor do I think smoking is a healthy choice. But it's just that -- a choice.

Who am I -- or anyone -- to tell a person they cannot smoke outside?

After people had complained for years about smoke in restaurants and other establishments, proprietors created "smoking and non-smoking" sections, which seemed to placate the majority for a few years.

Then, it seemed after a few reports on the effects of second-hand smoke, a movement started to ban all smoking.

That led up to last year's statewide ban.

What's next?

Restaurants will stop serving food to people who do not meet a certain height or weight standard?

Will anti-caffiene health fanatics start a movement to ban my beloved java?

My grandmother was 85 when she died, and for most of her life she was a smoker. If Grandma was attending a wedding, as soon as she got out of the church, she was toking up. I could not imagine her having to walk to the end of a city-owned parking lot in inclement Ohio weather to take a puff.

Of course, she died of lung cancer, but that was her choice.

I understand the complaints about unsightly cigarette butts and discarded lighters littering the ground -- that is discourteous, but not a reason for banning.

Our country has gone from banning books and ideas to legislating behaviors and choices.

Although some people may enjoy trying to create a cookie-cutter society with a uniform set of rules, actions and behaviors, we will never be a perfect society -- not this side of Heaven.

Ohio cannot keep guns out of the hands of children, drunken drivers from plowing into pedestrians or drugs and gangs from infiltrating our schools and families.

But we can ban smoking.

Maybe I'm just blowing smoke, but it seems to me there are just some things a bit more important than quenching the flames of smokers.

E-mail: TTroglen@recordpub.com

Phone: 330-688-0088 ext. 3165