Nearly a year and a half after Tempe voters enacted a ban on smoking in restaurants, bars and bowling alleys, State Rep. Linda Lopez (D-Tucson) plans to introduce legislation that would do the same statewide. She plans to introduce a bill that would ban smoking in all public places, which includes bars and bowling alleys.

In 1999, the Tucson City Council, with the energy of since-retired Council member Janet Marcus, passed a ban on smoking in restaurants. Pima County followed suit in 2001, rendering the question of "smoking or non?" obsolete.

Smoking has been banned in state buildings, including all the UA buildings, for years, but bars and other non-restaurant businesses surrounding the university still allow smoking.

It is doubtful that the tobacco and bar lobbies will allow such a bill to pass without a grisly fight. Indeed, many bars are already blaming the Tempe law for hurting business and driving customers to other areas.

However, overall evidence that bans on smoking in restaurants, bars and bowling alleys actually hurt business is shaky at best. According to a press release from Lopez, studies indicate that a comprehensive statewide ban on smoking in restaurants, bars and bowling alleys in California has not hurt business.

Kendrick Wilson contributing writer

"A recent study showed no negative impact on California restaurants and bars in the critical area of sales tax receipts," the press release claims.

In the years following Tucson's ban on smoking in restaurants, sales tax receipts for Tucson restaurants actually increased.

The business issue aside, workers in restaurants and bars are one of the least protected groups of people against the effects of second-hand smoke in our society. There is little question that second-hand smoke leads to cancer and other serious health problems. While individuals certainly have a right to smoke ÷ and thereby kill themselves ÷ if they so choose, they have no right to put others at an undue risk for cancer and other illnesses because of that choice. Smoking in public places does just that.

Lopez equated protecting workers in restaurants and bars from second-hand smoke to protecting coal miners, auto painters and textile workers from the hazardous fumes inherent in their work.

"Those thousands of people who work in bars, restaurants, and other public places throughout Arizona deserve to be protected from the free-floating carcinogens from second-hand smoke," her press release stated. "They deserve the same workplace hazard protection we provide to Appalachian coal miners, Detroit auto painters and South Carolina textile workers."

Bars near campus and the smoking portion of their customers will surely oppose a ban on smoking in bars, but such opposition must be taken as what it is ÷ people demanding the right to kill other people, albeit slowly.

We cannot live in a risk-free society, but we can live in a society where known risks are not blatantly exacerbated. Restaurants and bars are not allowed to serve uncooked poultry or meat that has been stored for weeks at room temperature. Smoking should be banned in these establishments for the same reasons that prohibit them from washing fruits and vegetables in the toilet and require them to serve drinks in clean glasses to every customer.

Interestingly enough, while food sanitation laws enjoy the support of just about everyone in the community, nearly 17 times as many deaths are attributed to lung cancer nationwide than all food borne illnesses combined. According to the American Lung Association, smoking is responsible for 87 percent of lung cancer cases.

In years past in Arizona, the likelihood of something like this passing was next to none. But nowadays, with Lopez fighting the good fight to get this bill through the Legislature, and a governor who understands the value in public health and safety, it might just pass. Stranger things have happened.

Wouldn't it be nice to sit down at a bar on Fourth Avenue without needing a knife to cut through the air? And wouldn't it be a great day in Arizona when workers in bars and restaurants were given the protections they deserve? We still have a ways to go, but Lopez is putting us a few steps closer.

Kendrick Wilson is a political science junior. He can be reached at .