it’s the equivalent of insisting that a server in a restaurant should literally suck it up. or that smoking at one’s office desk isn’t anybody else’s business.
except, of course, it takes a long time for the health effects of second-hand smoke to manifest. it’s a matter of days for covid.
i was naive heading into ottawa’s great smoking debate, thinking it would be about health policy. i thought the overwhelming facts about environmental tobacco smoke would be evident.
then, just as now, misinformation was rampant. there were lots of efforts to downplay or deny the impacts of tobacco, just as there is much effort today to deny the severity of covid or the effectiveness of masks, distancing and vaccines.
the intensity of emotion, on both sides, came from deeply held beliefs about community, what we owe each other, the role of government and what freedom means. and while we have a pretty broad consensus about those things, now, as then, it’s not unanimous. emotions run deep.
interestingly, those who felt most intensely often came to their view out of addiction to ideology, not cigarettes. polls of smokers showed a majority wanted to quit and many saw the by-law as reinforcement for that goal.