CRAIN'S CHICAGO BUSINESS EDITORIAL

City should leave smokers a little breathing room

July 04, 2005

In our age of hypersensitivity, kid-glove treatment seems mandatory for every group except one: smokers.

As society in general becomes more inclusive and egalitarian, those who light up become more and more ostracized, marginalized and segregated. It seems that our capacity to endure smoke moves in inverse proportion to our tolerance for those with whom we differ on weightier matters.

Of course, SMOKING is unhealthy, and society as a whole is better off now that fewer people smoke. And nobody should be forced to endure secondhand smoke. That's why restaurants created SMOKING sections and other buildings herded smokers into designated areas. Many establishments and workplaces ban SMOKING altogether.

But that's not good enough for Chicago Alderman Ed Smith (28th). He's not willing to let businesses and building owners strike their own balance between the competing interests of smokers and non-smokers.

Last week, Alderman Smith proposed an ORDINANCE that would give Chicago one of the broadest SMOKING bans in the country. Bars, shopping malls, office buildings and outdoor stadiums would be off-limits to smokers under his proposal. The measure would ban SMOKING virtually everywhere except private homes. It even would turn those clutches of smokers huddled around the entrances to downtown office buildings into illegal gatherings. No SMOKING would be allowed within 25 feet of a building where SMOKING is banned.

We think Alderman Smith's ORDINANCE goes far beyond what's necessary to protect public health and, therefore, beyond government's proper sphere of action. Similar bans have provoked legitimate anger in New York and elsewhere.

Some businesses, like taverns, cater to smokers. That's their right, and those who don't want to encounter smoke should avoid such places. But Alderman Smith's ORDINANCE effectively would dictate that no business may cultivate smokers as a clientele.

Petty as it may seem, that kind of government meddling has no place in a free-market economy.