How To Say No

Saying No in Public Places

Your hotel room smells like stale smoke and you wake up coughing and sneezing. The sign says "No Smoking." Still, smoke is so thick inside the sports arena that you cannot enjoy the game. Cigarette smoke from other tables makes it hard to relish-or even taste-your restaurant meal.

In some cities and towns, smoking is forbidden in most public places, and many restaurants are completely smoke-free. Yet in other localities, restaurants, bars, sports centers, bowling alleys, theater lobbies, waiting rooms, and other public places, remain smoke-filled. Of course, enforcement of smoking bans is often lax.

How can you avoid other people's smoke in public areas? Take full advantage of nonsmoking spaces and limit the time you spend in places that don't protect nonsmokers.


Here are some ideas:

• Always take the "nonsmoking" options that are available. Today, many restaurants have nonsmoking sections and hotels offer nonsmoking rooms and floors. You can even get a nonsmoking rental car. If one place doesn't offer nonsmoking, choose another that does. The strongest statement against smoking in public places is made by taking your business elsewhere.
  
  
• Don't accept what you can change. If a restaurant puts you at a table near smokers (even if you're in a non-smoking section), ask to move. If smokers don't obey nonsmoking rules, ask those in charge to enforce the rules. When people near you are smoking, ask them politely to either stop, move the ashtray, or hold their cigarette away from you.
  
  
• Keep children out of smoking areas. Choose "non-smoking" even if people in your group smoke. They can smoke outside or go into the smoking section if they need a cigarette. If there are no nonsmoking sections, go someplace else.

Following the release of the 1986 reports by the Surgeon General and the NAS, many new laws, regulations, and ordinances were enacted that severely restrict or ban public smoking. With the release of new studies such as the 1999 NCI monograph, many more such laws can be expected:

By law, smoking on all airline flights of 6 hours or less within the United States is banned; however, in practice, all U.S. airlines have banned smoking on all domestic flights. All interstate bus travel is smoke free.

ETS meets the criteria of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for classification as a potential occupational carcinogen. (OSHA is the Federal agency responsible for health and safety regulations in the workplace.)

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) is another Federal agency that is concerned with ETS exposure in the workplace. NIOSH conducts ETS-related research, evaluates work sites for possible health hazards, and makes safety recommendations. NIOSH recommends that ETS be regarded as a potential occupational carcinogen, in conformance with the OSHA carcinogen policy, and that exposures to ETS be reduced to the lowest possible levels.

Currently, nearly every state has some form of legislation to protect nonsmokers; some states require private employers to enact policies that protect employees who do not smoke. Information about state-level tobacco regulations can be accessed through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) State Tobacco Activities Tracking and Evaluating (STATE) System Web site. In addition to state legislation, a number of local jurisdictions have enacted ordinances addressing nonsmokers' rights, and most are more restrictive than their state counterparts.

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