Smoking To Be Banned On City Property

A City Council vote Monday will likely spell the end to smoking outdoors anywhere on city property.

The sight of smokers huddled in doorways became common after a state ban on indoor smoking took effect in 2006; the ordinance up for second reading and final passage Monday takes it a step further. The council will hold a public hearing before the vote. The meeting is 8 p.m. in Municipal Court, 325 Watchung Ave.

To see more than you ever wanted to know about smoking bans in the United States, click here.

On a personal note, both my parents were heavy smokers and both paid a price. My father developed lung cancer and my mother had emphysema. Neither could stop, having grown up when the tobacco industry used every means possible to entice young people to take up smoking. My father even tried to get us to bring him cigarettes in the hospital before his death in 1984. His fingers were stained with nicotine and his bedside table at home was marred with burn marks from cigarettes.

Even after becoming a near-recluse who spent almost all her time on the couch, my mother made sure she had cigarettes on hand. My father suffered several heart attacks starting in the 1970s and my mother died of a heart attack in 1992.

My husband and I did not smoke. When my daughter was a baby, the price of babysitting by Grammy and Granddad was that she came home with clothes reeking of smoke.We used to go to jazz clubs in New York occasionally and the smoky atmosphere there left us with red, watery eyes.

Believe it or not, when I first went to the Courier News building in Bridgewater in 1987, smoking was permitted in the newsroom. It made me sneeze. I was glad when it was banned, but those who were addicted to it got grumpy. One editor chewed on plastic straws all day just to have something in her mouth. She cursed a blue streak as well, which seemed to be another aspect of her oral fixation.

Nowadays I seldom encounter the smell of cigarettes, except on the street. But I do see cigarette butts all over. The high price of cigarettes has led to the sale of "loosies" on Park Avenue, despite raids by the state for sales tax violations. After Hurricane Sandy, one of the most closely-watched spots for reopening was the place that sold loosies, so bad was the customers' addiction.

Overall, this legislation is a good thing. Society has gone from seeing smoking as sophisticated to realizing it harms both smokers and those exposed to smoke. For those who have not been able to kick the habit, click here to learn about getting help to quit.

--Bernice