If you want to know why Michigan bans smoking (via local ordinances) in virtually every workplace except bars and restaurants, there is a short answer: Cash. The longer answer: Campaign contributions.
While Michigan's bar and restaurant owners and beer and wine distributors are hardly considered opinion leaders on most issues, they -- with help from Big Tobacco -- have this one hog-tied.
Employees in virtually every line of work other than bartender, waitress or waiter in Michigan can't smoke on the job and are protected from having to put up with second-hand smoke from co-workers. Lawmakers realized it was a health issue and acted.
But because the liquor and tobacco lobbies have money to spend -- and know just which lawmakers to give it to -- a non-smoker working his or her way through college or supporting a family as a server or bartender can go home every night stinking of smoke after inhaling the equivalent of a pack of cigarettes.
It's a classic case of cash over conscience. Our most notable local practitioner is state Sen. Jason Allen, R-Traverse City, who in 2004 refused to allow a senate committee vote on a proposal to ban smoking in Michigan restaurants; he has received at least $5,000 in political contributions from tobacco companies and related interests and $8,900 from restaurant and bar associations in recent years.
When asked by Traverse City Mayor Michael Estes to sponsor legislation allowing local communities to ban smoking in bars and restaurants, Allen gave a familiar answer: Leave that decision to business owners and consumers. Employees? Not at all.
It's an argument straight out of the smoking lobby playbook that, while harkening back to basics, ignores a more basic right -- to breathe. This is a health issue. It's not a debate over competition or choice; it's about being able to work without risking one's life.
Until just a couple decades ago, workers in certain fields were routinely exposed to asbestos, lead or noxious substances of all kinds because that was part of the job. Once medical evidence mounted to the point where the threat to society and individual health was perceived to be greater than the needs of industry, it stopped.
For tobacco, that time has come; except in the case of bars and restaurants, Michigan employees are no longer required to risk their health through exposure to second-hand smoke for a paycheck.
Today, we look back at the people who fought the rear-guard actions to protect industries that relied on asbestos and lead and shake our heads. What were they thinking?
We can't let that happen again. Bar and restaurant smoking is a health issue, period. Exposure to a known carcinogen cannot be the price of earning a living.
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