By Staff
On Thursday, the Berrien County Board of Commissioners will decide whether to ban smoking in businesses and public places as an effort to combat the detrimental effects of secondhand smoke.
We believe new regulations of this nature will do little to further the goal of eliminating smoking.
While we share the belief that smoking is an unhealthy practice and also look to the day when it will only be a memory, we feel burdening businesses with regulatory requirements as well as creating an atmosphere where smokers are looking over their shoulders before lighting up will only breed resentment and non-compliance.
Furthermore, we believe this proposal has no teeth, since the businesses that see the lion's share of smoking within their establishments – restaurants and bars – will be exempt from this policy, if enacted.
Many employers in the county, including Lakeland HealthCare and Whirlpool, have already banned smoking on their premises. We applaud them for taking this step and recognize their right to do so since they are private companies.
However, for a public entity such as the county to do so opens the doors for other nanny laws to be enacted once they become popular and politically expedient.
On a practical level, bans of this nature are ultimately unenforceable. There are too many businesses and not enough code enforcement officers to provide the oversight necessary to make the ban work. The fact that only three fines have been issued in the 17 counties that ban smoking shows an inability for effective enforcement. Also, we do not believe health department officials should take on an enforcement role.
We believe increased education, peer pressure and incentives – such as tax credits for businesses that ban smoking – are the best ways to bring about an end to smoking. While we realize these efforts are not as rapid as a smoking ban, we believe, in the long term, the results will be lasting.