Editorial

Tighter smoking restrictions are only a year away

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Remember the old days when an ash tray had a place on every office desk?

Those days are long gone.

And they're going to become even more remote, thanks to LB 395, signed into law by Gov. Dave Heineman last February.

Not only will be smoking be banned from virtually any indoor workspace statewide -- including restaurants, bars, keno establishments and indoor public places -- the fines range up to $500 per violation.

The only indoor places that will be legal to smoke include up to 20 percent of hotel rooms, tobacco-only retailers defined as a "store that sells only tobacco and products directly related to tobacco." That does not include alcohol, coffee, soft drinks, candy, groceries or gasoline. Other exceptions include facilities researching the health effects of smoking and private residences -- except when the residence is being used for a licensed child care program.

And what constitutes and "indoor" workspace?

The law defines it as "an area enclosed by a floor, a ceiling, and walls on all sides that are continuous and solid except for closeable entry and exit doors and windows in which less than 20 percent of the total wall area is permanently open to the outdoors. For walls in excess of eight feet in height, only the first eight feet shall be used in determining such percentage."

If that seems too restrictive, be thankful you're not in Colorado, where smoking areas must be at least 15 feet away from the entrance.

The new restrictions go into effect June 1, 2009.

That's plenty of time to kick the habit altogether.

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  • Smoking, as I well know, after kicking the fifty year habit, enhances the probability that smokers will contract deadly medical problems. Every smoker should, somehow, quit smoking, and paying so much, needed for gas, money for a product everyone (+-) seems to HATE. Now, here is my input:

    How, now, will we pay for all those nifty entitlements, passed into law, that must be paid for? Somehow, I fear we tax-payers have been bamboozled into a tax situation we cannot easilly remove ourselves from, example: Healthcare for poor Children?

    I have another idea: Why don't we just pass a law that makes 'Smoking,' totally illegal? We can also hide the names of other habits someone doesn't like, in the law, and call the hidden insert an 'earmark.' We should also place in the new law the provision: ... all laws passed in the last twenty five years, requiring funding from 'Tobacco' tax, be Null-and-Void.

    That way, no one wins, and everyone looses; or: everyone wins, and no one looses (which-ever).

    Keep it up, representatives of the constituency, we will soon have sufficient restrictive laws on the books to be able to justify making 'Freedom' illegal (maybe even a 'cuss word').

    If this sounds like ranting, it is. Sorry!

    Shalom in Christ, anyway, Arley Steinhour

    -- Posted by Navyblue on Wed, Jun 11, 2008, at 3:49 PM
  • Bill, you hit the nail on the head, As another who kicked the habit after fifty years, I'm right with you on the pulpit of abstinence from tobacco. Too bad that we didn't get the message when we were in Navy boot camp some fifty two years ago. My heart is gone, along with my teeth, my hair, my memory, etcetera. Just how we the people can go on subsidizing poison like this is beyond me. I'm afraid, though, that if we try to make tobacco illegal, we'll wind up with a mess like that national tragedy, the eighteenth amendment, often called the Volstead Act or Prohibition. Once the human animal is exposed to chemical pleasures such as booze, drugs, tobacco or gluttony in any form,they tend to crave what they shouldn't have in contrast to the good-for-ya's. Been there, done that, talking from experience.

    I didn't start this to steal your thunder,Bill. I just want you to know that there are those of us around who completely agree with you.

    -- Posted by everett on Fri, Jun 13, 2008, at 3:41 PM
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