As the war on secondhand smoke has intensified in recent years, on-the-job cigarette lovers have been gradually exiled from their work stations, first to special break rooms and finally to the entryways of office buildings where they must brave the elements to puff away.
But even that often uncomfortable refuge could be a thing of the past if Ald. Edward Burke (14th) gets his way.
Burke created a stir recently with a proposed ordinance to force stores that sell cigarettes to also prominently display pictures of diseased lungs and other smoking-ravaged organs. On Wednesday, he took his personal war on smoking even further, suggesting at a City Council committee hearing that the city should consider barring smokers from loitering in the entry of buildings.
“It’s almost as if one has to pass a smoking gantlet to get into office buildings,” Burke said. “The amount of people smoking outside office buildings is ridiculous.”
As expected, many dedicated smokers Wednesday said they were appalled by Burke’s idea, complaining that it was only the latest in a series of steps to treat them as outcasts.
“I think they are going to extremes that aren’t necessary,” said Bob Austin, 59, as he smoked a cigarette. “I understand smoking isn’t good for me. But I smoke, and I’ll smoke somewhere.”
Mort Sennett, 69, has been smoking since he was 17 but said he’s against it. He’s tried halfheartedly to quit, whereas his wife, Pia, stopped two months ago.
“I don’t have a problem not smoking when the law says don’t smoke,” he said while enjoying a cigarette near the old Water Tower. Banning smoking in an entryway is understandable, he said. But if they try to ban smoking, say, on a sidewalk, Sennett said he’d oppose it.
Andrew Wozniak, 39, said he’d always find some place to light up. Being in an entryway “just bothers people as they come in and out of a place,” he said.
Burke floated the idea among other possible anti-smoking measures at a meeting of the council’s Health Committee called to take testimony on Burke’s diseased-organ picture proposal. The committee deferred action on the ordinance until next month.
Under his plan, Burke said the pictures would be posted near the location in stores where cigarettes are purchased and “not at the aisle where you buy your Rice Krispies and Cheerios.”
The idea is a variation of a campaign in place in Canada, where graphic anti-smoking pictures, including some of diseased hearts, are required to be included with every pack of cigarettes.
Gary Rejebian, a spokesman for the Illinois Retail Merchants Association, said that while his group supported anti-smoking education efforts, members opposed the requirement to display anti-smoking pictures in stores.
“We must emphasize that we do not believe posters of sooted lungs in stores would be effective in turning people off of smoking,” Rejebian said. “They will, however, turn people off from the stores that display these pictures.”
“If these photos belong there, then so do pictures of diseased livers next to bottles of wine and spirits, and so do pictures of obese people next to premium ice creams.”
That statement drew scornful laughter from some aldermen.
“I think the retailers need to look at the overall health of their customers rather than their own profit margins,” Ald. Patrick O’Connor (40th) said. “They’ll buy longer if they live longer.”
Also testifying was Dr. David Cooke, president of the Midwest branch of the American Heart Association, which backed Burke’s plan.
“If pictures of blackened lungs and damaged hearts keep even one child from smoking or help someone to quit, then this ordinance is worth it,” Cooke said.
The committee also discussed a number of other anti-smoking strategies, including one that would mandate that cable companies run a certain number of public-service announcements against tobacco.
Another was for the city to start offering to offer a program to help poor smokers who want to quit. Ald. Shirley Coleman (16th), herself a smoker, said it would be “an injustice” for the city to implement tough anti-smoking measures without assisting those who cannot afford to buy nicotine patches or other cessation devices.
A third concept was to bolster enforcement of currently existing anti-smoking measures. O’Connor said Burke asked the committee to look into why few restaurants have been cited for failing to create non-smoking areas.
“We have the right to monitor how the city’s laws are being enforced,” Burke said.
His comments followed a Tribune survey that found only two such citations had been issued during a recent two-month period even though the city health department had conducted some 7,000 restaurant inspections.
The Tribune also surveyed 50 restaurants and learned that nearly 40 percent lacked a distinct non-smoking section, and 98 percent flouted at least one aspect of the 7-year-old smoking code.
