Posted on 11/26/2001 8:21:42 AM PST by Mr. Mulliner
Maryland County Declares
Tobacco Smoke a PollutantThe Montgomery County, Md. council yesterday approved one of the most restrictive anti-smoking measures in the nation, setting stiff fines for people who smoke in their homes if it offends their neighbors, according to The Washington Post.
Under the county’s new indoor air quality standards, tobacco smoke would be treated in the same manner as other potentially harmful pollutants, such as asbestos, radon, molds or pesticides. If the smoke wafts into a neighbor’s home -- whether through a door, a vent or an open window -- that neighbor could complain to the county’s Department of Environmental Protection.
Smokers, and in some cases landlords or condominium associations that fail to properly ventilate buildings, would face fines of up to $750 per violation if they failed to take steps to mitigate the problem.
When the nation’s strictest public smoking ban took effect in the Washington suburb of Friendship Heights, assistant director of Cato’s Project on Global Economic Liberty Jacobo Rodríguez, a nonsmoker who lives there, filed suit against the city and the ordinance was eventually retracted.
Robert A. Levy, Cato’s senior fellow in constitutional studies and an expert on tobacco litigation, argues that smoking bans represent meddling, snooping, busybody government at its worst. He says bans are dismissive of the rights of an unpopular minority -- namely smokers -- without any basis in the Constitution, science or logic. “All a nonsmoker has to do to escape unwelcome outdoor tobacco fumes is take a step or two away,” says Levy. “That’s not too much to ask to promote civility without shutting down all social contact.”
“Ordinarily, we rely on common courtesy and mutual respect when individuals relate to one another,” Levy says. “But nosy, intrusive government has polarized the dispute between smokers and nonsmokers. As a result, venom has replaced respect and obstinate behavior has replaced common courtesy. It is government, not secondhand smoke, that has poisoned the atmosphere.”
But unfortunately, according to the anti-smokers (different from non-smokers) CATO is an unreliable organization in the pocket of the tobacco companies because it has accepted contributions from the industry.
So are liberals. They pollute common sense.
For example: If I have more that three false alarms at my business in a one year period I am fined $75.00 for false alarm #4 and after #6 the fine is $500.00 and you cannot unregister your alarm system or turn it off because the county requires you have an alarm that detects fires. Therefore you're forced to have an alarm that is monitored.
No doubt about it, anny-staters are much more noxious than smoke.
i cannot think of too many things that are not pollutants. cars, shingle factories, trees (yes trees emit hydrocarbons), people (i dare you to take the stall that i just walked out of)...
this is just another attack on the american way of life by leftist environmentalists who do not care about the environment, but are interested in control.
i don't much care being around smoke, but when i find it obnoxious i have the common courtesy to speak to them about it instead of getting a tax wasting law passed.
smoking brings pleasure to the person puffing and it apparently also pisses you off. looks like a win-win situation.
this is not an issue about smoking or polution. it is an issue about personal freedom and the rights of the government.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.