Local Ordinance Would Restrict Smoking in Workplace, Public Areas

The U.S. Surgeon General Dr. C. Everett Koop endorsed an ordinance proposed yesterday by two City Council members which would regulate smoking in Cambridge's public areas.

Dr. Koop, who spoke earlier in the day at a Harvard symposium on the dangers of smoking, joined City Councillors David E. Sullivan and Sheila T. Russell in a formal presentation of the proposed ordinance.

The ordinance, if passed, would revise an existing regulation which prohibits smoking in specific public places, such as auditoriums and grocery stores and requires that a quarter of restaurant seating be reserved for non-smokers. According to Councillor Sullivan, the new proposal would primarily "close some of the loopholes" that exist in the current ordinance.

The proposal, if passed, would prohibit smoking in all public places except for restaurants and certain other areas and would ban smoking in any workplace unless the employer and employees specifically agreed otherwise. Even such agreements would be governed by restrictions preventing favoritism toward smokers, such as a provision requiring that employers provide a non-smoking lounge at least as large as any lounge where smoking is permitted.

Sullivan also said he hoped a complete ban on smoking in restaurants would eventually be passed. "We're not talking about annoyance--we're talking about death," he said, echoing the Surgeon General's frequent comment that "smoking is the number one public health problem in the United States."

According to the ordinance's sponsors, "second-hand smoking," or the inhalation of smoke by non-smokers, prompted much of their concern. Russell, who co-sponsored the proposal, said her husband, the late Mayor Leonard J. Russell, had reacted strongly to second-hand smoke. He succumbed to throat cancer last year. Councillor Russell is asthmatic.

Edward Sweda, the state health lobbyist for the Group Against Smoking Pollution (GASP), was optimistic about the ordinance's chances. "With the momentum that we've acquired today with the Surgeon General, we're confident that we will be successful in getting it passed this year," he said. Sweda also said he expected a "milder version" of the proposal to pass in the Massachusetts legislature this year.

The Surgeon General, who has traveled across the country on a personal anti-smoking crusade, said the Federal Government would not permit a national anti-smoking law to be passed. However, he said 37 states already have some form of smoking ordinances on the books.

"350,000 people die every year, but that doesn't tell you about the disease and disability of people who don't happen to die that year," he said. "The cost in human resources is incalculable, and the cost in money is in excess of $60 billion a year."

Sullivan said that because two-thirds of Cambridge residents do not smoke, he expects little opposition to the ordinance.

The proposal will be referred to the Ordinance Committee at the city council meeting on Monday.