David Reddick, the Anniston councilman, is right.
Anniston has a strong no-smoking ordinance, but last month three council members OK’d an exemption for cigar bars. He now wants that exemption broadened for others.
It’s basic logic.
But David Reddick is also wrong.
He wants that exemption to include hookah bars, which is an awful idea. Anniston may need the dribble of sales-tax revenue those businesses might create, but it shouldn’t import an activity that’s a bonafide health risk. Science has proven it. Pretending you’re a 19th-century Persian nomad while smoking liquid tobacco through a hookah pipe is terrible for your body — and for others’, as well. You might as well suck on the tailpipe of a ’53 Chevy. It doesn’t make you cool or hip. It clouds your lungs and, if you smoke it enough, it may shorten your life. So puff away, if that’s your thing.
But don’t listen to me on this.
Instead, listen to these guys:
From New York University’s College of Global Public Health: “Tested (recently) as they left their shifts, ten hookah bar employees were found to have elevated levels of toxins and identifiable markers of inflammation that are linked to airway and heart diseases. In fact, some of those tested had results akin to those seen in heavy cigarette smokers.”
From toxicologist Terry Gordon, an NYU professor: “Our findings challenge the belief that secondhand exposure to hookah smoke is safe.”
From the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, via the Johns Hopkins News-Letter: “One hookah session produces 2.5 times more nicotine, 10 times more carbon monoxide, 25 times more tar, and 125 times more smoke than a single cigarette.”
And, one more from NYU: “Specifically, researchers found that the average level of exhaled carbon monoxide rose markedly after the (hookah bar) workers’ shifts, with readings from two of the 10 workers greater than 90 parts per million, which is similar to those seen in heavy tobacco smokers. Additionally, blood levels of inflammatory signaling proteins were found to be significantly higher in workers after their shifts. Such proteins are part of normal immune responses, but also central to heart disease and cancer when present in too high levels.”
So, Mr. Reddick, you still support bringing this to Anniston?
Boiled down, this hookah nonsense wouldn’t be an issue had the council refused to exempt cigar bars from the city ordinance — an ordinance, mind you, that’s well-crafted and took a significant amount of political muscle to pass. It’s a challenge to suggest a more important vote taken by the Stewart City Hall than the one that outlawed smoking in public places.
That other Alabama cities with smoking bans have welcomed cigar bars is irrelevant. In this regard, keeping up with the Joneses is silly. What Birmingham and Gadsden do is their business, their mistakes. Anniston’s decision to carve out an exemption weakens its ordinance and allows regrettable proposals like Reddick’s to gain traction.
If you’re going to ban smoking in public places, then ban smoking in public places. No exceptions.
By the way, Reddick also wants a public-place exemption for e-cigarettes. Well, that’s dandy. That would please Anniston’s vapers. But this month, published studies have shown that e-cigs (a.) hinder the immune system; (b.) may cause long-term hearing loss; and (c.) are bad for teenagers, who are three times more likely to take up regular cigarettes within a year of starting to vape.
Saying e-cigarettes aren’t harmful is like saying Jose Cuervo isn’t alcohol.
Of all the things on City Hall’s plate, the exemption of hookah bars isn’t high on the agenda. If anything, it illustrates the pull-and-tug councils go through when choosing what businesses they approve and where they allow them. They’re usual questions. And they’re not rocket science, either. Common sense and a little research can work wonders.
Mayor Vaughn Stewart isn’t a fan of Reddick’s proposals. “I was not in favor of cigar bars and I’m not in favor of hookah bars and I couldn’t vote for vapor either,” Stewart said. Neither is Councilman Seyram Selase. Two votes. I expect a third will follow.
The only reason Reddick’s proposals will live on is if the council decides small additions to the city’s sales-tax base and bar scene trump residents’ health. The answer is clear, even through all this needless smoke.
Resource: http://www.annistonstar.com/opinion/phillip-tutor-an-awful-idea-for-anniston---/article_4e04f7a6-c620-11e5-b617-2fbed2200d91.html
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