It's been three years since "Do you have a light?" became a defunct pickup line in Somerville. The Somerville smoking ban eliminated cigarettes from area bars and restaurants in October 2003, causing Tufts and local smokers to seek ashtrays on the sidewalk rather than within their favorite nightspots.
By leaving the bar to get their cigarette fix, these smokers are protecting the health of their nonsmoking peers inside.
This past summer, the Surgeon General issued a new report about the health risks of secondhand smoke. According to the report, entitled, "The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke," adults' exposure to secondhand smoke has immediate adverse effects on the cardiovascular system and causes coronary heart disease and lung cancer.
Smoking bans aim to benefit the customers in bars and restaurants as well as the employees.
Edith Balbach, director of the Community Health department at Tufts, explained that smoking bans are one of the key steps to preventing smoke-related health problems.
"I think about [smoking bans] as creating smoke-free worksites, and I think that everyone is entitled to a smoke-free worksite," Balbach said. "I don't really distinguish between a worksite that's a bar and a worksite that's my office."
A smoky worksite can lead to severe heath problems, according to Balbach.
"If you're exposed to secondhand smoke for four hours, that's equivalent to smoking half a pack of cigarettes, and if you're forced to do that day in and day out, that's the same as smoking a half pack a day. That's a significant risk," she said.
However, according to Ron Ames, general manager at the Joshua Tree in Davis Square, the benefits of a smoke-free workplace do not apply at his restaurant. "Most of my employees smoke," he said. "We sell cigarettes at the bar, which we had stopped for a while, but we re-started six months ago."
Balbach, however, thinks that getting rid of smoke always has a positive health outcome. She explained that the elimination of secondhand smoke has near-immediate effects:
"Smoking bans make a big difference in worker health, and also patron health. If you smoke and you stop smoking today, by tomorrow, your heart will already be working better. The effects on the upper respiratory system are immediate; the effect on asthma triggers is immediate," Balbach said.
Being good for health, though, is not the same as being good for business. When asked if the ban had hurt the Joshua Tree, Ames said it has only affected one segment of his customer base: "It has hurt the after-work business. People would go out for a smoke and a beer after work, but now they go home," he said.
Ames said, however, that the effect of the ban has not been too large. "The only real difference is that now I send someone out to sweep up butts on the sidewalk outside," he said.
Ames attributed the steady business in his restaurant to the fact that the ban on smoking is city-wide, affecting restaurants all over the Boston area. "If it was only in Somerville, people would go somewhere else, but that's not the case," Ames said. Boston put a smoking ban into effect before Somerville, in May 2003.
Senior Callie Sigal, a patron of the Joshua Tree, said that having people smoke outside is definitely better than sharing smoke with others inside. "I would prefer people to not smoke in bars, because they can smoke somewhere else," she said. "That way, they're not damaging anyone else's health - only their own."
Sophomore Sudeep Bhatia also supports the smoking ban in bars, even though he is a smoker himself.
"There is no reason to have people who don't smoke exposed to smoke, but it would be better to have a non-smoking section, because it protects the minority [smokers], and that's what democracy is," Bhatia said.
While the health benefits of a smoking ban might be apparent, some say that the choice to smoke should be the individual's to make.
"I think it's bulls--- if you can't smoke in clubs and bars. If you're going to go to an environment like a pub or a bar, obviously you drink and don't care much about health," freshman Andrew Nguyen said.
"Alcohol and cigarettes go together; they're both social activities. It's not fair for the government to impose their righteous beliefs on others," Nguyen added.
Ames expressed similar sentiments, although he said that there was little he could do but follow the law. "As an adult, you should be able to make your own choices," he said.
Balbach feels that when it comes to smoking there should be a distinction between rights and privileges.
"I believe that rights are things that you're entitled to because you're human," she said. "Once you create a right to smoke, I think that starts taking away something precious that we should fight for onto a human behavior that is not the same as, say, freedom of speech or freedom of the press."
Tufts' policy on smoking follows the Somerville smoking ordinance, allowing smoking in outside areas only.
"It's not restrictive as far as rules and laws [on campus], but in general, in terms of attitude, people have negative opinions [of smoking]. The demographic of Tufts students is upper middle class; people who don't generally smoke," Bhatia said.
