At the end of September, the Eugene City Council urged the development of new rules that would, ostensibly, reduce the health hazard of secondhand smoke.
The ruling? That outdoor smoking “enclosures” must now be 75 percent open. Under such City Council direction, a smoking area with both a roof and more than one wall would not be permissible.
The Eugene City Council has claimed that better ventilation will reduce the health risks of smoking, but who are we kidding? The only people who frequent smoking areas are smokers – otherwise known as people comfortable with the idea of inhaling smoke. Smokers are already prohibited from smoking inside any city building; now, they won’t even be allowed protection from wind and rain when trying to smoke outdoors.
As long as citizens over the age of 18 have the legal right to smoke a cigarette, the city of Eugene has little business protecting smokers from themselves. If the lungs of non-smokers are the City Council’s true concern, they should consider the fact that opening up smoking areas only creates an abundance of secondhand smoke flowing into the faces of passersby.
For $15,000, Eugene can surely accomplish a feat greater than rebuilding smoking enclosures. Smokers don’t have a problem with their own secondhand smoke, and non-smokers will be less likely to inhale toxins if smoking enclosures stay enclosed. The only public hazard we see is a Eugene governmental body that wastes time and money on unnecessary legislation.