We haven't donated any money to this control freak group in years. They are totaling disgusting!
Posted on 01/02/2003 6:14:14 AM PST by chance33_98
A year later, smoking ban is topic of heated debate
Corrie MacLaggan El Paso Times
One year after the city's smoking ban went into effect, some El Pasoans are rejoicing at their ability to breathe fresh air indoors, and others are wishing the ordinance would, well, go up in smoke.
"I don't appreciate the law -- I don't support it one bit -- and I did everything I could to fight it," said Randy Magee, co-owner of Rods and Wheels Bar and Grill, Mulligan's Shot Bar, Boodro's Place and Graham's Corner.
But others said the ordinance has been a public health victory because it allows El Pasoans to avoid the effects of secondhand smoke.
"It's been greatly successful," said East-Central city Rep. Larry Medina, who strongly backed the ordinance. "El Paso will always be known as the city that took the bull by the horns and passed the healthiest, toughest ordinance in the country."
Since El Paso's ordinance went into effect Jan. 2, 2001, police have issued 183 first-offense citations for smoking in a prohibited area, which can carry a fine of up to $100. No citations have been issued for second offenses, which can cost up to $200.
Police have cited 28 people for failure to post required no-smoking signs. One of them, a taxi driver, has been cited twice.
El Paso's ban, which prohibits smoking in enclosed public spaces including restaurants, nightclubs and bars, is part of a nationwide trend to curtail indoor smoking in public places. The New York City Council in December approved Mayor Michael Bloomberg's anti-smoking bill that bans most indoor smoking. Since 1998, California has had a statewide indoor smoking ban.
In nearby Las Cruces, the City Council passed an ordinance Oct. 7 that tightened the city's no-smoking ordinances by banning smoking in bars, clubs and truck stops and within 50 feet of a public building. But the new ordinance was suspended Nov. 4 after the city received a petition with more than 3,500 signatures.
Now, the Las Cruces City Council can decide to repeal the ordinance or to take no action, thereby sending the issue to a referendum. A special election could take place as early as March 6, or the referendum could appear on the municipal ballot in November.
Lawrence Banegas, co-chairman of the Tobacco Free Las Cruces Coalition, said he didn't think it was fair to allow voters to decide on the issue.
"It's absurd," he said. "What other public health issue do voters decide on? You and I don't get to vote on the temperature food is served in a restaurant, or the locations of fire extinguishers, or seat belts, or speed limits."
Some restaurant and bar owners said the El Paso ordinance has hurt business.
Rich Wright, owner of Wildhare's which closed last month, said, "I would like to blame ... the smoking ban."
But he said it had only a small impact on business and added that the big problem was the economy.
"I'm not happy with it, and my customers aren't happy about it," said Roxanna Crandall, owner of the Eagle's Nest bar on Dyer, which has posted an anti-ordinance petition on its Web site, www.eagles-nest.us.
Magee said that business suffered last year at his bars, but that he wasn't not sure whether the cause was the ordinance or the sour economy.
Still, he said, the ordinance has cost him plenty. He's had to create or extend patios for his bars and add outdoor heaters so people won't freeze when they go outside to smoke.
Smoker Gregory Willems said he would like to see stand-alone bars have the power to decide whether to allow smoking. He said he has collected about 2,000 signatures for a petition to amend the ordinance.
"Adults have the right to do what we want to do -- to smoke or not to smoke," Willems said. "All council has done is made everyone into lawbreakers. Don't we have better things to do with police?"
But health authorities said the ordinance, which states that employers shall "provide a smoke-free work place for all employees," has brought healthier working conditions to El Paso. Because employees now inhale less secondhand smoke, they miss fewer days of work, said Sue Beatty, training and production manager for the El Paso City-County Health and Environmental District.
Secondhand smoke causes 3,000 lung cancer deaths and up to 50,000 heart disease deaths for nonsmokers in Texas every year, said Laura Chapman, manager for the Western Region of the American Lung Association of Texas.
"Lung cancer is a cruel disease -- not a nice way to go," Chapman said. "Adults can choose where they go, but the part that makes me the angriest is that children can't get up and walk away from secondhand smoke."
Chapman seems to be cautiously celebrating the first anniversary of the ban, because she's worried that with a change of city leadership, the ordinance could be reversed in the future.
Westsider Angelica Barragan, a former smoker, lived in Los Angeles for two years and said she loved coming home from bars without reeking of cigarettes. Now, the native El Pasoan is happy she can experience that in her hometown.
"We live in a city where we already have bad air pollution," she said, "so we really don't need to be tasting cigarette smoke with our food at restaurants."
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About the ban
Today is the first anniversary of El Paso's smoking ban, which prohibits smoking in these places:
Elevators.
Restrooms, lobbies, reception areas and hallways.
Buses, bus terminals, taxicabs, airports and public transit waiting areas.
Service lines.
Retail stores.
Banks, hotels, motels, coin-operated laundry facilities, attorneys' offices and other business offices.
Restaurants, nightclubs and bars.
Galleries, libraries, museums, zoo facilities.
Movie theaters, recital halls, auditoriums.
Public schools, city buildings.
Hospitals, clinics, doctors' and dentists' offices.
Lobbies and other common areas in apartment buildings, condos, trailer parks and nursing homes.
Polling places.
Bingo games.
The law does not prohibit smoking in these places:
Private residences, except when used as child care, adult day care or health-care facility.
No more than 25 percent of hotel and motel rooms.
Retail tobacco stores in stand-alone facilities.
Restaurants, hotel conference rooms and public and private meeting rooms while they are being used for private functions that do not involve contracted food or beverage service.
Its a legal product. Yes, I think you are an idiot to smoke them.
Public place does not mean that every person of the public has the right to have that public place to their specific desires. That means that if an owner of PRIVATE PROPERTY wishes to NOT have smoking on his/her property, then so be it and I support it. AND, opposit this is the desire to have a Smoking place which I totally support too. No I would not go there, but gee, isn't that the greatness of our Free Nation? I can go where I choose?
The left has turned going to where you choose to going to where they prepare for you so as to promote their world view.....freedom and liberty be damned.
It's a shame when a once respected organization has to resort to bald faced ridiculous lies.
No reputable study has EVER shown "second hand smoke" dangerous!
BTW, I do miss the sound of the mechanical larynx replacements for throats detsroyed by cancer. I've actually been in a local bar (smoking wasn't yet prohibited) where there have been three of these guys at one time. As the place filled up, the stench got so bad that we'd routinely go somewhere else for dinner. The place closed down recently; the landlord raised the rent and the operators couldn't handle it.
But, to all you dumb smokers who make up justifications why you should continue to smoke and how it is a matter of conservative principle and not addiction, we really do appreciate you! No, really!! But, while you do pay an awful lot of tax, in the end, it costs a lot to pay for your cancers and treatments. Sure, there is a profit but it is not as much as you think.
The tobacco companies also appreciate your working for them and your willingness to die for their legal product. Such loyalty is a beautiful thing.
A fraudulent ordinance based on a fraudulent study passed by a fraudulent council.
"It's been greatly successful," said East-Central city Rep. Larry Medina, who strongly backed the ordinance. "El Paso will always be known as the city that took the bull by the horns and passed the healthiest, toughest ordinance in the country."
Rah Rah Rah. A round of applause for the tyrants.
"Since El Paso's ordinance went into effect Jan. 2, 2001, police have issued 183 first-offense citations for smoking in a prohibited area, which can carry a fine of up to $100. No citations have been issued for second offenses, which can cost up to $200."
Better take beans off the menu, El Pasoans. Fart fines are on the back burner. Big Bucks in Backfires.
"It's absurd," he said. "What other public health issue do voters decide on? You and I don't get to vote on the temperature food is served in a restaurant, or the locations of fire extinguishers, or seat belts, or speed limits."
Typical socialist not-wittery.
[sarcasm] We're all just too damn stupid to vote on things like smoking bans, seatbelt laws and speed limits. [/sarcasm]
Go ahead...laugh it up...just remember how amusing this was when, at some point down the road, it's one of your oxes being gored. SUV's, fast food, candy...there's something that you like that isn't particularly healthy or responsible. The same power they use to harrass smokers will be used against you at some point.
We haven't donated any money to this control freak group in years. They are totaling disgusting!
OH, NO!!!! EVERY DEATH IN THE USofA EVERY YEAR IS NONSMOKERS BEING MOWED DOWN BY THAT DASTARDLY SHS!!! (Two and a half million deaths occur in the US each year and if TX has 53,000 due to shs, multiplied by 50 states...)
OR...every nonsmoker who allegedly dies each year is in Texas. Guess that means the rest of the country can smoke in peace.
Can this broad really be this stupid or is it the reporter who took the alleged figures for the US and made them all Texas? Not that it matters since the sheeple will accept whatever is said as cast in stone. Even if it's necessary to completely shut off common sense to do it.
"We", That's funny.
You having acquaintances, let alone friends. Very funny. Thanks, Tacis.
If you're gonna play Ketchup, ya gotta have the supplies. Here ya go, lol...
LOL.
This is the clearest and most candid statement from the controlling twits as to what their agenda really is that I have ever seen.
Can't go letting the rabble make really important choices!
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