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  October 15, 2002
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Our Right to Clean Air
By Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg


Did you know that the air in a smoke-filled bar is more dangerous than the air in the Holland Tunnel at rush hour? Or that for those who work in such smoky establishments, putting in an eight-hour shift has the same effect on their health as smoking half a pack of cigarettes?

A worker's right to breathe clean air on the job is more important than someone else's privilege of polluting that air with tobacco smoke. Common sense and common decency demand that no one should have to choose between holding a job and running the risk of cancer, or heart or lung disease. That's the reason that I went before the City Council Committee on Health last week and urged passage of a law that would protect workers in thousands of restaurants, bars and offices from the cyanide, formaldehyde and other deadly poisons that hang in the air of smoky bars and restaurants.

The facts about second-hand smoke are incontrovertible. Even the tobacco industry doesn't dispute them anymore. City Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Frieden estimates that about 1,000 New Yorkers a year die from such "involuntary smoking." Second-hand smoke puts thousands of New Yorkers, most of whom work in low-income jobs, at serious risk of shortening or ending their lives just because they're trying to make a living.

Those who say such a law would hurt business are just blowing smoke to divert attention from the real issue of worker health and safety. In New York City, protections against second-hand smoke are already in effect in many public places. Those include movie theaters, museums, airplane terminals, train stations, sports stadiums and arenas and, since 1995, thousands of eating establishments comprising more than half the total number of restaurants in the city. Prohibiting smoking hasn't reduced attendance or income at any of those venues. Many New Yorkers may even go out more often when they know they won't be bothered by tobacco smoke. And many restaurateurs have told me and the City Council they long to be relieved of the hassle of trying to serve customers who want to be completely free of contact with smoke.

Laws to protect all workers from second-hand smoke are being enacted across the region and the nation. Last week, the Nassau County Legislature passed such a law, and comparable measures are being deliberated in Suffolk and Westchester counties. Nationally, Chicago and Boston are considering similar laws. I posed a question to the City Council that I hope you'll ask them, too. It's no longer "Why should we protect workers from exposure to deadly second-hand smoke?" It's "Why not now?"


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