We feel sorry for smokers, but especially those who've smoked for a number of years and are good and hooked. We've never met one who didn't regret starting to smoke and didn't want to quit.

At many businesses, smokers have to stand outside and shiver or bake while having a smoke. As for the cost, at about $4 a pack, a pack-a-day habit means about $1,500 a year. And, governments always seem eager to pile on even more taxes.

But our sympathy extends only as long as we're out of sniffing distance from their secondhand smoke. It smells bad, and it's bad for you.

Smoking in Salina is in the news again after Monday's Salina City Commission study session, where representatives of the Salina Area Tobacco Prevention Coalition asked commissioners for a tougher smoking ordinance.

When Salina implemented its partial smoking ban -- no smoking in restaurants between 5 a.m. and 9 p.m. -- in 2002, the city was among the first towns in Kansas to implement such restrictions. Six years later, we appear behind the times.

One of the reasons for that, in addition to allowing restaurants to keep limited smoking, is all the exemptions Salina allows.

It exempts licensed clubs, bowling alleys, bingo halls, recreational facilities, hotel-motel nonretail dining areas, private dining or banquet rooms, and bars that make less than 30 percent of their revenue from food sales.

Salina neurologist Trent Davis, a member of the tobacco coalition, on Monday told commissioners that the group would like to see an ordinance that banned smoking in all public places and within 50 feet of entrances and exits.

"If we don't do this, sooner or later we are all going to pay in a very terrible way, not just in terms of health, but also health expenditures," Davis told the Journal after the meeting.

Kansas spends $1 billion a year in tobacco-related illness, and it brings in just a quarter of a million in taxes from tobacco, he said.

"We aren't trying to outlaw it, we just want to reduce secondhand exposure."

In a 2007 Journal story, then-Salina Mayor Alan Jilka said the smoking ban was "the single most controversial issue that's come along" during his more than a decade on the commission.

We don't know if that will be the case this time, but we're about to find out. Commissioners on Monday told city staff to draft an ordinance to ban smoking in all public places.

It could get dicey for commissioners if they have to face a room full of angry bingo players and smokers.

Our hope is that the general public, desensitized somewhat by years of smoking restrictions, will be less vociferous toward a total smoking ban. If not, that's something commissioners will have to deal with.

Their obligation is to do the right thing, not the easy thing.

-- Ben Wearing

Executive Editor

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says....
For the bad breath everyone says smokers have..please..don't know how many times I have talked to non smokers and they have that rank sour smell when they speak ..bout gags you ..just because you don't smoke non smokers you still need to brush your teeth and use mouth wash
3/6/2009

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SMOKER says....
They will not be able to enforce the no smoking.Not at the bars anyway..hehehehe have fun trying .light em up and smoke em ..
3/6/2009

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Michael J. McFadden says....
Just an update for future browsers: the referenced graph was crashed by someone who didn't care for the web site evidently. It is now housed more safely at: http://arclightzero.web.officelive.com/Documents/MNGraph.pdf Michael J. McFadden Author of "Dissecting Antismokers' Brains"
3/4/2009

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Michael J. McFadden says....
So the "tobacco coalition" says, "We aren't trying to outlaw it, we just want to reduce secondhand exposure." and then demands a "50 feet from entrances and exits" rule? I'm not from Salinas, but unless it's a very odd place I'd say that even a very skinny person might have trouble standing 50 feet away from any entrances and exits there. . . . . . Smoking bans are bad laws based upon lies. They're telling you the ban won't hurt the bingos, right? Or that it will be only "temporary" ? That's how they got their bans passed in Minnesota too. . . . . . Want to see how honest they were? Check out the graph at: . http://banthebanwisconsin.com/Documents/MNGraph.pdf . and then think about how much of what you're hearing from them in Salinas is the truth. . . . . Michael J. McFadden, Author of "Dissecting Antismokers' Brains"
11/28/2008

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Bobby Simons says....
If you dont like smoking, open up your own business and dont allow it. Dont tell others how to run theirs.
11/27/2008

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Gary Oller says....
I hate the smell, smoked myself and quit Jan 17, 1968. I do not want to see it or smell it, makes me cough.
11/27/2008

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IceMan says....
There are more important health issues to deal with; like STD's, AIDS, drug and alcohol abuse among teens and adults. Those can ruin the body as well as the mind. Get your priorities straight. If you want tobacco to pay for its damages, raise taxes on it to match its medical costs to the state.
11/26/2008

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K says....
I think it should be a decision on the business on whether or not they want to allow smoking.
11/26/2008

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Bob says....
Here in Chicago, many small local bars ignore the ban. After eleven months, there have been NO customer or worker complaints. As time passes, and the lobbyists who started the ban have moved on to other states, it's fading into forgotten history. The only complaints have been for smokers and ash receptacles being too close to the entrance of bars that comply. That would seem to indicate that the ban people never go inside the bars they like to control.
11/26/2008

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Joe Camel says....
The smell of burning tobacco is one of the most delightful on the planet. The "bad smell"you're getting is your breath blowing back in your face. The notion that thousands of smokers snould have no rights because a creep like you doesn't like to smell it is the kind of thing wars are fought over. May your sorry carcass be trampled into the dirt.
11/26/2008

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