Blue lines, sacking the plastic grocery bag, banning the distribution of toys along with Happy Meals. Municipalities around here and elsewhere in the state have been proposing and passing measures to protect the environment and promote the health of their residents.
While all of these proposals have been well-intentioned some are rather dubious. If a local government really wants to do something that will have an immediate, positive and noticeable effect on protecting the environment and improving everyone's health they should do what Carpinteria is considering doing: imposing a total ban on smoking.To borrow Jerry Brown's favorite preface these days, -- "at this stage of my life," -- I'd sooner have a root canal than be exposed to someone else's second hand smoke.
Bill Clinton was wrong. He did inhale. We all inhale whether we realize it or not. We have to breathe and the last thing I want to be breathing is the stale cigarette smoke of a nicotine fiend.
Carpinteria already markets itself as the "world's safest beach." If it passes a total ban on smoking it should start trumpeting the fact that it has "California's freshest air" as well.
© 2010 by Craig Smith and www.craigsmithsblog.com
