Editorial: Time to clear the air

Publication Date: 2007-03-21

• Publication:Raleigh (NC) News & Observer

North Carolina's legislators may want to have it both ways when it comes to rules for smoking in public buildings, but that's not possible when second-hand smoke is the issue.

The tension stems from a desire to support the tobacco industry -- and the jobs it produces in what is still the nation's top tobacco state -- while at the same time making public spaces healthier. State Rep. Hugh Holliman has come down on the right side, introducing a bill that would ban smoking in restaurants, bars and indoor workplaces...

At bottom, banning dangerous smoke in public places is the same sort of rule as requiring restaurant workers to wash their hands after using the restroom and mandating that your shrimp stay refrigerated until the chef is ready to cook it. It's a common-sense public health move.