Published: November 19, 2009 05:17 pm      

Good idea, but ... — 11/20/09

It's tkae time to gain support for smoking ban in all of Boyd

In the firm belief that what is good for Ashland is good for all of Boyd County, the Boyd County Smoke-Free Initiative has used the occasion of the annual Great American Smokeout to launch a campaign that they hope will lead to the Boyd County Fiscal Court and the Catlettsburg City Council to follow the Ashland Board of City Commissioner’s lead by enacting ordinances to ban smoking in restaurants and most other public places.

While our support for Ashland’s ordinance limiting smoking in public was somewhat less than enthusiastic, we would wholeheartedly support ordinances imposing similar restrictions on smoking in Catlettsburg and the unincorporated parts of Boyd County. That’s because the impact of Ashland’s ordinance has been positive. The worst fears of opponents have not been realized. If any restaurant or business has gone out of business because of the Ashland ordinance, we are not aware of it. The restaurants continue to be crowded. Indeed, we would wager that the recession has had a far greater impact on business than the smoking restrictions.

While we question whether occasional exposure to second-hand smoke is really quite as harmful as some scientists claim, there is little question that the absence of cigarette smoke has made dining out more pleasant in Ashland than when restaurants were divided into smoking and non-smoking sections.

Smokers still dine out in Ashland. They just refrain from lighting up while in the restaurant. Instead, they either go outside or temporarily resist the urge to puff away.

All this being said, even those advocating anti-smoking ordinances in Catlettsburg and Boyd Count recognize that they face an uphill battle in convincing the fiscal court and Catlettsburg council to approve anti-smoking ordinances — particularly in a year when all seats on the county and city governing bodies will be on the ballot.

Holly West, Ashland-Boyd County Health Department tobacco coordinator, said there “might be a long road ahead of us as far as Boyd County going smoke-free. It might not be as easy as our initiative in Ashland, but I think it’s a task that is well worthwhile. I think it will improve the health of our community and our future as well. We’ll be working hard to do that.”

The political consequences of Ashland’s approval of its anti-smoking ordinance have been non-existent. The commissioners and former Mayor Steve Gilmore who supported the ordinance all were easily re-elected. In fact, we don’t even think the anti-smoking ordinance was an issue in their re-election campaigns, and we know of no candidates who ran on a pledge to rescind the ordinance.

If the fiscal court and Catlettsburg council were to approve restrictions on smoking in public, we also think the political ramifications would be minimal. Here’s why: Even in a county where the rate of smoking is among the highest in the nation, three out of every four adults do not smoke. While some of those non-smokers may still oppose anti-smoking ordinances on grounds that they think it is wrong — even un-American — for government to impose such restrictions on personal freedoms, most non-smokers prefer not being exposed to tobacco smoke when dining. So do many smokers for that matter.

Frankly, we expect it will be a least 2011 — if then — before either the Catlettsburg council or the fiscal court approve a smoking ban, but we commend the Boyd County Smoke-Free Initiative for boldly advancing the idea. That’s the first step. Let the debate begin.

Meanwhile, it would help the cause if other area cities — Russell, Grayson, Greenup, etc. — would restrict smoking in public. An impossible dream? Probably, but you never know until you try.