Time to serve some ‘cold turkey’
Even with the tobacco settlement money rolling in state coffers and no cigarette advertising on television, radio, in newspapers or billboards, you’d think it would be better than this.
Indiana ranks second in the nation in a dubious statistic — the percentage of its residents who smoke. Hoosiers moved up the undistinguished ladder in this ranking from No. 6 last year, trailing only West Virginia as the place where the largest percentage of its residents regularly light up.
This is a major embarrassment for this state, and it’s something that’s urgent enough for public officials to raise their voices in board meetings, in private conversations and in public.
Why does Indiana have such a high percentage of smokers?
There are a couple of good reasons cited last week by The Indianapolis Star. One is that our cigarette taxes are relatively low, though many smokers might reject that argument. Yes, ours are about $1 a pack, but many states charge in the neighborhood of $2.
Then there’s the argument about nonsmoking ordinances, laws that prevent smoking in public buildings. Many cities and counties don’t have those ordinances in place, and the state lacks a law banning smoking in the workplace.
Such a change would likely have some effect, but wouldn’t solve the problem. Most Americans already don’t smoke, and smoking is at least discouraged if not banned in many workplaces.
Banning smoking in bars and restaurants is another matter. Smoking is viewed as a creature comfort that begins conversations, ends dinners and augers discussion in rooms where political candidates caucus. Indiana allows that tradition to continue a decade after it gave up its most cherished tradition, the one-class basketball tournament.
Now, Indiana is close to being in a class by itself when it comes to smoking. Imagine having the distinction of being the state that will make you want to wash your hair twice a day and increase your likelihood of cancer more than any other place in the union. Heck, for that matter, it will increase the likelihood of cancer and other diseases more than many places around the world that have already adopted smoke-free ordinances for entire countries.
I don’t mean to demean smokers. Many of them just can’t help it. My own father and brother smoked. I’ve worked with smokers who were great people.
But I’ve known too many smokers who aren’t with us any more, who labored on breathing apparatus, lost lungs and had yellow fingernails and pale faces.
If we really want health care reform in Indiana, forget the public option, the House version and the Senate version. Let’s think about banning cigarette smoking in workplaces and restaurants at the minimum and requiring bars to have nonsmoking areas. Let’s give people who want to live and don’t want to be No. 2 or No. 1 in smoking nationwide a chance to breathe some fresh air into the future of this state. Let’s be brave enough to tell our boards of health, our county commissioners, our city council, our legislators and our governors to act.
And let’s serve up some cold turkey to any of those 26 percent of Hoosiers who want to quit between now and Thanksgiving. We’d like them all to be leftover for a few more years to enjoy more holidays with us.
• Dave Kitchell is a columnist for the Pharos-Tribune. He can be reached through the newspaper at ptnews@pharostribune.com.
