Make LIRR platforms smoke free
Wesley Celestin, 40, of Huntington, has a smoke before boarding the LIRR in Hicksville. Credit: Danielle Finkelstein
The outdoor platforms of the Long Island Rail Road are the latest battleground in the war over public smoking. The battles, once fought over bars, restaurants and offices, are migrating outdoors.
A bill in the state Assembly would ban smoking in LIRR and Metro-North ticketing, boarding and waiting areas. Smoking is already prohibited in trains, enclosed waiting areas and stations, so this would mostly affect outdoor platforms.
The move comes on the heels of Great Neck's ban of smoking on sidewalks in its downtown business area, and in concert with local and state attempts to get smoking banned at public beaches, parks and golf courses.
Who has the more important right? The smokers, who believe they should be able to light up in open, well-ventilated places, or the nonsmokers who want to avoid the secondhand toxins?
In this case, the liberty of those who would be free of smoke is more important.
LIRR platforms are publicly funded, shared resources. Secondhand smoke has been shown to be dangerous, is known to be obnoxious and those who are bothered by it in a publicly funded facility that is the only one of its kind in town, have a right to be free of the smoke.
Creating toxins in public is not a real right. Being free of them, in public, is. hN
