06.15.2006

Publication Date: 2006-06-15

• Publication:Newark (OH) Advocate

SmokeFreeOhio, a broad-based coalition led by the American Cancer Society, is collecting signatures to put a proposal called the Smoke Free Workplace Act on the Nov. 7 ballot. It would ban smoking in all public places and workplaces in the Buckeye State in a manner similar to the Newark, Heath and Granville bans. Restaurants, businesses, bars and bowling alleys would be smoke-free.

But there is another proposal making its way toward the November ballot. According to The Plain Dealer, tobacco giant R.J. Reynolds and the Ohio Licensed Beverage Association are behind the so-called SmokeLess Ohio campaign. It proposes a constitutional amendment that would overturn smoking bans in 21 Ohio cities, including our three, and guarantee the right to smoke in most public places. Smokers also would be allowed to light up in offices, factories and retail stores where minors are prohibited...

SmokeLess Ohio is a term straight out of George Orwell's novel "1984." It suggests a reduction in smoking while encouraging the opposite.