Dear Editor:
I continue to be amazed at the logic people have tried to use against banning smoking in restaurants and other public spaces. Over the past weeks, smoking has been compared favorably to both automobile exhaust and alcohol abuse. I look forward to reading attempts to portray smoking as comparatively better than armed robbery or assault.
The automobile example is irrelevant - even the author admitted that we seldom see running cars in buildings full of people - but also misleading. A quick Internet search turns up dozens of scholarly articles linking serious health problems to prolonged exposure to auto exhaust. And while no serious commentator recommends banning cars, dozens of municipalities have taken the logical and practical step of banning smoking in public spaces. Clearly, this argument holds neither water nor smoke.
The suggestion that we ban drinking as well as smoking in restaurants is equally ridiculous. If an adult chooses to drink in a restaurant - and note my use of the word "choice," a key phrase of anyone arguing for "smoker's rights" - their behavior in no way harms the person sitting at the next table. The same cannot be said of someone who smokes in a restaurant or any other building.
