First in a series
[img]1305|right|Andy Weissman||no_popup[/img]Whom to blame for the approaching smoking ban in multi-unit housing in Culver City?
One culprit is a heretofore apparently powerless outfit, the Coalition for Smoke-Free Living in Culver City. Among others are the American Heart Assn., the American Lung Assn., and Culver City’s embryonic state senator, Holly Mitchell.
City Councilman Andy Weissman said this morning that between April and June of 2012, a half-dozen supposedly separately sourced, strongly worded letters urging a wipeout of Culver City home smokers arrived on his desk.
Was this mass mailing coincidental timing by the hardliners?
Is the ban government overreach?
Is it busybody intrusion into private lives?
Mr. Weissman answered “no” to both questions.
At last Monday night’s Council meeting, Mr. Weissman joined three colleagues in informally embracing the ban, a salute to the disputed effects of second-hand smoke. Council directed city staff to return at an unspecified date with a formal ordinance in support of a prohibition.
Isn’t a smoking-at-home ban an attempt by government to control the private lives of residents?
“Government controls behavior all the time,” said Mr. Weissman. “The smoking issue is about protecting public health.”
How?
“By preventing innocent, non-smoking second parties from having to suck in somebody else’s smoke.”
Isn’t there the same paucity of evidence about ‘second-hand smoke’ as there is about the alleged dangers of fracking?
“Nonsense. I can’t agree with that. The evidence is clear that second-hand smoke is hazardous whereas the science, to the extent it is science, is very mixed on the issue of fracking.”
Banning smoking in one’s home is a huge step forward – or backward, depending on one’s view – in asserting government control.
“I take the forward step. I never like to look backwards.”
The smoking ban in one’s home is more intrusive than any that come to mind.
“I think it is a little less intrusive than laws previously on the books that prohibited certain behavior in one’s bedroom.”
(To be continued)
