By Jaye Lewis
Imagine a woman who loves to eat out with her family. It’s a rare treat, because she is a severe asthmatic. She’s excited. Her whole family is gathered together, and they have picked the nicest restaurant in town. This is one of her good days. She feels pretty good. She insists they dress up. It feels like a party. They arrive at the restaurant. "Non-smoking," they tell the hostess. She leads them to the non-smoking section. The restaurant is packed with smokers. She begins to feel nervous, but this is, after all, the non-smoking section, so she hides her fears.
Just as they reach their table, the woman’s nostrils begin to burn. No! She’s supposed to be safe! Searing pain invades her sinuses, and her chest begins to ache. Please, God, not this time! Oh, the pain! Her breathing becomes labored. She can't get enough air! No, she’s in the non-smoking section! Surely she’ll be safe! She smells nothing but smoke! She’s choking! She can't breathe! She staggers. Leaning against the table, she reaches blindly for her rescue inhaler, gasping, crying, eyes streaming.
Totally humiliated, she allows her family to carry her out. The other customers wonder who the crazy lady and her family were. The asthmatic woman goes to the hospital. The rest of the clientele continue with their meal.
Sounds dramatic. Very Hollywood. It couldn’t possibly be that bad. Sure people have asthma, but it’s not like they’re going to die! Or is it? According to a NIAD fact sheet: “Deaths Information for Asthma,” approximately 5,000 asthmatics die annually in the United States.
Imagine what a surprise it was for that woman, eight years later, when she read the following story that made headlines around the world:
“Hartford, CT, 5/8/03 ... Following the lead of California, Delaware, and New York, the state of Connecticut passed legislation yesterday to require all restaurants and bars to be smoke free... The legislation requires restaurants to be smoke free by October 1, 2003 and bars to be smoke free by April 1, 2004.”
Welcome to my world. In 1995 I was the woman who was informed by a Connecticut Legislature spokeswoman that making restaurants and bars smoke free, “for a few asthmatics,” would be detrimental to the businesses of Connecticut. I respectfully disagreed. Raised in the restaurant business myself, I knew that people don’t go to a restaurant to smoke; they go to eat. They don’t go to bars to smoke; they go to drink. Smokers smoke in these establishments, because they can; and when they can’t, they don’t smoke.
Far from ruining an establishment’s business, maintaining a smoke-free restaurant can actually increase the clientele. Parents are more likely to include their children. Others, who may or may not have lung disease, simply want to breath clean air. Non-smokers, a growing force in the economics of society, are very interested in maintaining a smoke-free environment.
A Zagat New York City Restaurant Survey, in 2004, polled nearly 30,000 New Yorkers, hoping to discover if the city-wide smoking ban discouraged them from frequenting their favorite restaurants. According to that survey “by a margin of almost 6-to-1,” restaurant goers insisted that they were eating out more frequently, “because of the city's smoke-free workplace policy.”
Due to the evidence of the New York Restaurant Survey, there is a growing momentum across the U.S. in favor of smoke-free working environments. As of this writing, five states have passed smoke-free laws, including restaurant establishments and bars: California, my old state of Connecticut, Maine, Delaware, and New York. There are other states which are on the threshold, including Massachusetts. Utah, Florida and Idaho have also enacted strong laws, exempting only “stand alone” bars.
Many communities across the nation are also taking independent action to protect, not only the right to breathe, but also to protect against fire hazards. They hope to reduce the incidence of fires in local establishments. Not only will people like me be able to spend time with our families in our favorite restaurants, but there is a real hope for cutting the fire hazards associated with heavy smoking. So, perhaps, in the near future those of us who battle lung disease will be able to say with confidence, “we live in a brave, new world!”
Reference information collected from:
1. Jaye Lewis testimony before Connecticut State Legislature, March, 1995
2. Asthma A Concern for Minority Populations, NIAID Fact Sheet: NIAID
3. Globalink.org, May 9, 2003
4. American Lung Association Website: http://www.lungusa.org/
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