Smokers decry surge in smoking bans

Smokers on Long Island have fewer places than ever to light up.

Smoking bans, once restricted to the most crowded indoor venues and workplaces, are quickly multiplying. Driven by an expanding body of research on the dangers of secondhand smoke, recent bans have extended to some beaches, stadiums, parks and sidewalks.

Now, a proposal would fine a smoker $1,000 in Nassau County for lighting up with kids up to age 14 in the car.

The increasing restrictions have ignited a debate in which critics say government has gone too far and advocates say it hasn't gone far enough. One thing is clear: Smokers here, as elsewhere, are having a harder time than ever finding a spot to freely smoke.

"I'm not a heavy smoker, but it's getting to where you can't take a break and just have a smoke any more," said Huntington Station cabbie Norman Smith.

Countered Lisbeth Shipley, executive director of the Manhasset Coalition Against Substance Abuse: "You can do whatever you want when your personal right doesn't impose on my personal right and alter the chemicals in my brain."

Smoking bans widespread

The pace of the bans, though, isn't slowing. New York City recently banned smoking in Central Park, Times Square and other parks and beaches. The city's two major league ballparks, Yankee Stadium and Citi Field, are smoke-free zones. Los Angeles is considering a ban on smoking in outdoor dining areas.

On Long Island, the Hempstead Town Board has prohibited smoking in parks and on beaches, except in designated areas. Great Neck has banned puffing on village sidewalks near businesses. Brookhaven banned smoking in town parks and recreation areas, while Huntington's ban halts smoking in town playgrounds and Southampton's at the beach.

As for cars, Rockland County bans smoking when children are riding along, as do the states of Arkansas, California, Louisiana, Maine and Oregon. A New York bill is pending.

Audrey Silk, founder of Brooklyn-based Citizens Lobbying Against Smoker Harassment, called Nassau's effort "unnecessary government intrusion."

"It's government taking over parental autonomy based on a fraud that smoke inside a vehicle is harming anybody," Silk said.

Another new front for public health officials: regulating smoking in private homes. In Belmont, Calif., smoking was banned two years ago in apartment and condominium buildings -- the first such prohibition in the country.

How far can smoking bans go? The short answer, according to legal experts: pretty far.

While smokers have the liberty to indulge their habit, they don't have the right to affect the health of others, said constitutional law professor Gary Shaw of Touro Law Center in Central Islip. In a court challenge, Shaw said, a judge would defer to state law, which favors public health and safety.

Still, Michael McFadden, mid-Atlantic coordinator for Citizens Freedom Alliance, says the bans go too far. "I believe these bans are a definite example of government overreach," said McFadden, whose group advocates for smokers' rights and is not funded by the tobacco industry.

Clean-air laws play key role

If smokers are feeling burned by regulations, it's likely because of stepped-up pressure from clean-air laws, which are aimed at protecting the public from the byproducts of tobacco smoke.

New York's Clean Indoor Air Act, passed in 2003, ranks among the nation's strictest. The act also underscores that local jurisdictions can continue "to adopt and enforce local laws regulating smoking."

Smokers' advocates say they aren't convinced lighting up outdoors harms others. McFadden, for one, contends there are "absolutely no studies pointing to any real harm."

Proponents of the laws disagree with smoker advocates. They say science has proved unequivocally that secondhand smoke can be lethal.

New York's Health Department estimates that secondhand smoke contains more than 4,000 combustion products, 43 of which are known carcinogens in humans or animals, and many of which are potent lung irritants.

Tobacco fumes can waft 15 to 20 feet beyond the smoker in all directions, according to research by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The EPA estimates secondhand smoke causes up to 62,000 U.S. deaths a year among nonsmokers, including 3,000 deaths due to lung cancer. Exposure also causes respiratory infections in 300,000 children a year, it found.

Public health a priority

Over the past decade, lawmakers began banning smoking in public places altogether.

"There is no constitutional right to smoke. It's as simple as that," said state Sen. Toby Ann Stavisky (D-White-stone), the author of a bill that would ban smoking in cars when children younger than 15 are present.

Stavisky's bill, which stalled in committee last year, was reintroduced in February. She sees her measure as no different from requirements for infant car seats and seat belts, both of which were widely derided when first proposed. If the measure becomes law, violations would carry a $100 fine.

Nassau Legis. Judy G. Jacobs (D-Woodbury) and Judi R. Bosworth (D-Great Neck) authored the local measure, but with the harsher fine. At the time, Jacobs received scores of hostile emails and "my life was threatened," she said. The bill is on hold.

Dr. Shetal Shah, assistant professor of neonatology at Stony Brook University Medical Center, supports the measure. "Anything we can do to eliminate exposure to secondhand smoke is a worthwhile public health goal," he said.

McFadden, the smokers' advocate, worries bans on smoking in private homes are next.

"I'm sure there'd always be a fair number of children out there willing to drop the dime on Mom or Dad after they've been properly trained at school," he said.

With Reid Epstein