Total smoking ban only matter of time

The last time I was at Ali Baba restaurant on Craig Street, the kind hostess greeted me at the… The last time I was at Ali Baba restaurant on Craig Street, the kind hostess greeted me at the front desk. After finding out how many seats my party required, she proceeded to lead us to our table.

I saw the first few rows of seats pass by, and it quickly became apparent that she was leading us to the back room. As a lifelong resident of Pittsburgh and an avid Ali Baba eater for most of my life, my first reaction was to stop the waitress before she entered the back room and remind her that my party preferred a non-smoking table.

It was then that I was suddenly propelled into the year 2008 and realized that it’s been years since Ali Baba did away with their smoking section. The wooden, curtain-like divide that separates the two rooms remains as a relic from the “smoking or non?” era.

While many states are banning public indoor smoking altogether, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is, as of this column, leaving it up to the individual owner of an institution to make the big decision. Currently, the state House of Representatives and Senate differ on two versions of a statewide non-smoking bill – creating a hostile environment in the state government where little anti-smoking legislation can take place.

Attitudes toward indoor smoking have greatly changed over the years – from an essentially universally accepted practice to an outcast one in recent years. The smokers that used to take lighting up in a public lobby for granted now stand outside its iron curtain like modern-day pariahs.

The era of the smoking ban was ushered in when building officials first recognized the dangers associated with smoking on an elevator. Should someone drop a cigarette down the shaft, for instance, the whole building could be at risk of going up in flames. For years, the “no smoking” sign that adorned elevator walls was the only sign of anti-smoking action.

But not for long.

With the ’60s came new health-related information on the dangers of smoking, and an increasing number of people began to find the once ever-present action offensive. By the time the decade was out, “no smoking” signs became commonplace on buses and subways, in movie theaters and in the once-always-smoky hospital waiting room. The era of the nervous father-to-be puffing on a cigar with his friends and brothers had come to an end.

After smoking had been banned from a select few public places, like the ones mentioned above, the action taken on reducing smoke in public buildings began to slow down. Throughout the ’70s and ’80s, ashtrays adorned the desks of office workers and the conference tables of boardrooms around the country. My mother, who worked in the Cathedral of Learning for 15 years, remembers well her coworkers puffing away in Pitt offices.

Action was finally taken by the school in 1991 when the University passed its comprehensive smoking ban. Lighting up suddenly became an offense (though not a serious one – smoking indoors only brought a fine of $50) in all University-owned buildings. However, the original act states that a particular office may apply for an exception that would allow them to create a hospitable environment for indoor smokers.

While smoking in an office is currently not banned by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, most individual companies and institutions in our area have taken the measure into their own hands. And for that matter, many smokers take it for granted that smoking has been banned, and take the leisurely walk outdoors to puff away rather than risk being glared at.

The 1990s brought a new wave of smoking bans into effect, with the U.S. government prohibiting smoking first on airline flights of two hours or less in 1990, then subsequently on all flights in 1992. Congress passed a law in 1997 that mandated all flights entering or leaving United States territory must be nonsmoking – forcing many major international airlines that do business with the United States to cut back on their allowance of the habit.

Toward the end of the decade, restaurants increasingly became non-smoking territory. Perhaps the last great bastion of smoking in public, fewer states are allowing the practice each year. Pennsylvania, which does still allow lighting up at a restaurant table, is surrounded by states such as Ohio, New York, New Jersey and Maryland – all of which ban smoking in restaurants. Smoker-friendly West Virginia joins our state in employing no such ban.

By the time a future reader locates this column in The Pitt News archives, I’m sure a smile will come across his face as he imagines a world in which smoking at a restaurant table was not only legal but very much acceptable.

For now, my dear Pennsylvanians, light up because it won’t be allowed much longer. The battle is still silently raging, but not for long. It appears the nonsmokers have won.

E-mail Peter at pbm1@pitt.edu.