If you’re still upset that public smoking bans are keeping you from smoking a cigarette in your favorite restaurant, bar or strip club, a recently proposed Illinois House bill aims to make sure you can light up in these establishments as you please — despite the obvious dangers this poses to public health.
Illinois House Bill 1310 seeks to give municipalities the power to “issue a smoking license to certain eligible establishments,” including private clubs, adult entertainment establishments and bars. The bill is sponsored jointly by Reps. Randy Ramey Jr., R-West Chicago; Daniel J. Burke, D-Chicago, Anthony Deluca, D-Crete; and Robert Rita, D-Blue Island.
The Smoke Free Illinois Act, which went into effect in 2008, made it illegal to smoke in public places and within 15 feet of doors and windows. It was passed with the acknowledgement that secondhand smoke poses a danger to the public. House Bill 1310 would undermine that notion.
Proponents argue that a smoking ban is anti-business and pushes businesses to nearby states without such staunch smoking laws. They think this measure is pro-business and claim that the municipalities selling the licenses to establishments will reap significant revenues for the state.
They are missing the point: Cigarettes can kill, and while you apparently have the right to smoke yourself to death, you shouldn’t have the right to be an unhealthy influence on people around you. “At least 69 of the toxic chemicals in secondhand tobacco smoke cause cancer,” according to the National Cancer Institute.
To be fair, it’s important to note that the bill passing wouldn’t be an automatic mandate for smoking licenses for every establishment; in fact, local governments would still have the choice to yay or nay selling licenses, and even if they were in favor of the proposed law, special ordinances would need to be adopted. Also, under the planned bill, municipalities can control the number of licenses they dish out, and establishments would be required to post signage showing that they allow smoking.
But the fact that smoking in public places might be limited to a few places if the bill is passed doesn’t matter. What if your favorite bar or restaurant (or strip club) is one of the places that buys a smoking license and you have to be subjected to secondhand smoke, or worse, avoid the establishment altogether? It might seem like this bill only cracks the door a little bit, but at what cost? How much further will proponents of smoking in public places push the envelope if they get this small victory?
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