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| SMOKERS PROTEST IN BOSTON |
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Page 1 of 2  Plus: Our Register & Win winner of the week!Los Angeles, October 15 – If you are a cigar smoker, recent events have made you wary of expanding smoking bans nearly everywhere. But if you have a chance to go to a hearing, or to make your voice heard, do it! The latest example of the effectiveness of protesting against smoking ban proposals came in Boston, where an October 8 hearing on an expansion of the city’s existing smoking ban proposed by the Public Health Commission was met with strong opposition from cigar smokers. The proposals included a ban on sale of tobacco products in pharmacies, a ban on smoking in outdoor dining areas and the eventual closure of the city’s four cigar bars, which had been exempted from the smoking ban legislation implemented in 2004. The establishments in question include Cigar Masters, Stanza Dei Sigari at Caffe Vittoria, Tangierino and Churchill’s Lounge at the Millennium Boston Hotel. Representatives of these establishments, along with smokers, protested long and loud at the hearing. The head of the Commission, Barbara Ferrer, has said that she wants to “de-normalize” smoking and see it ended altogether by 2025 (parroting the language and timetable of the British Royal College of Physicians in their report on trying to end smoking submitted earlier this year). But smokers also had their say: “We’re just a mom-and-pop business,” said Cigar Masters co-owner Brett Greenfield. “There aren’t people who are in there who are expecting not to be around second-hand smoke.” Masters and his fellow investors poured $270,000 into creating the Cigar Masters cigar bar in 2004, relying on the exemption in the 2004 rules. “We’re in a 20-year lease and they want to shut us down,” he told the Boston Globe. But Greenfield made some allies. According to the Globe, City Councilor Michael Ross agreed with Greenfield and asked the Commission to reconsider the cigar bar provision. In addition, Boston Mayor Tom Menino – who appoints the members of the Commission – said “I understand they’ve been there for a while and I want to work with the cigar bars. I cannot, during these tough economic times, prevent them from doing business.” Even the editorial board of the Harvard Crimson, the student newspaper of Harvard University, found the cigar-bar closure concept offensive in its October 13 edition: While the previous ban was an understandable measure in protection of public health, mandating the closure of cigar bars would be alarmingly intrusive given its limited advantages. The direct public health benefits of the ban would be minor at best. There are only four bars targeted by the measure, and most of their customers are likely to smoke in their homes or elsewhere if they cannot go to cigar bars. Thus, the measure is doing nothing to protect the health of the bars’ customers. |
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Did you know?
“A Macanudo Baron de Rothschild cost you $2.60 in 1975, $3.70 in 1995 and $5.20 in 2005, a 100% increase in 30 years!
