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Action on Smoking and Health
A National Legal-Action Antismoking Organization Entirely Supported by Tax-Deductible Contributions
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Toronto's Smoking Ban Begins Today [06/01-1]
Excerpts from: Editorial: Enforce smoking ban
The Toronto Star [05/31/04]
Toronto's tough, new anti-smoking law kicks in tomorrow and smokers should prepare to be kicked out of local bars, bingo halls, racetracks and casinos.
Toxic puffing in an indoor public place will only be allowed in separately ventilated smoking rooms. And, hopefully, those too will close in coming years.
As if to underline the importance of the Toronto ban, U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona announced last week that smoking is deadlier than previously thought. The latest scientific evidence shows that in addition to lung cancer, heart disease and other known killers, tobacco use is linked to cancers of the stomach, pancreas, cervix and kidney. It also has a role in aortic aneurysms, cataracts and pneumonia.
U.S. health authorities estimate that smokers die 13 to 14 years sooner than non-smokers. Ontario's Ministry of Health estimates that smoking kills about 16,000 people in this province every year, including non-smokers poisoned by second-hand toxins.
In view of that tragic toll, Toronto's smoking ban should have been instituted years ago. But a determined rearguard effort by the tobacco lobby, and its friends in the bar and entertainment industry, has managed to delay life-saving reform.
Now that the ban is in place - and, if not across Canada, at least in Toronto - every effort should be made to ensure it is vigorously enforced.
But the bylaw's $225 fine for first offenders, and fines of up to $5,000 for subsequent violations, provide the best reply to rule breakers.
It's time everybody got the message: Smoking kills more people than drunk driving. Obey the law or pay the price.
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