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Editorial: Everyone pays smokers’ costs

The Capital Regional District is moving closer to extending its Clean Air Bylaw to prohibit smoking in parks, playgrounds, public squares and beaches.

The Capital Regional District is moving closer to extending its Clean Air Bylaw to prohibit smoking in parks, playgrounds, public squares and beaches.

You would think common sense and courtesy would make such a measure unnecessary, but we’re not holding our breath — except to avoid inhaling second-hand smoke.

Like a species threatened with extinction because of shrinking habitat, smokers continue to lose territory and to decline in numbers. And that’s the way it should be. Instances are rare in which smokers can indulge their habit without affecting someone else’s health, comfort or wallet.

“I’m not hurting anyone but me,” is the smoker’s lament, but that just ain’t so. Even in the privacy of your own home, if you smoke, we pay.

Although B.C. has the lowest smoking rate (14 per cent) in the country and the rate continues to drop, the habit takes its toll on people’s health and the economy. According to the B.C. Health Ministry, more than 6,000 British Columbians die each year because of tobacco, and the annual cost to the provincial economy is about $2.3 billion.

If you smoke in rented premises, your landlord will have to replace carpets and repaint after you move out.

Studies have long shown the dangers of second-hand smoke. Now research is pointing to the hazards of third-hand smoke, the residues that cling to clothing, carpets, furniture and drapes, combining with other substances to form carcinogenic chemicals.

Even without that danger, smoking damages a room, creating an unpleasant odour that is difficult to remove.

Hotels know this — that’s why they levy an extra charge against guests if they violate non-smoking rules. In 2010, former federal cabinet minister Bev Oda was dinged a $250 penalty on her Washington, D.C., hotel bill for smoking in her room.

Once again, someone else paid for a smoker’s disregard — in this case, it was Canadian taxpayers. Some people just don’t get it, which is why regulations are needed.

Long gone, fortunately, are the days when tobacco fumes filled offices, airplanes and restaurants.

Remember when planes were divided into smoking and non-smoking seating? What a joke that was.

“Smoking or non-smoking?” the maitre d’ would ask restaurant guests, as if there was a real choice — unless smokers dined in a hermetically sealed area, everyone got to share in their vice.

Smokers have been pushed into increasing isolation, from smoking sections to smoking-only rooms and finally to the great outdoors. Even that comes with restrictions — smokers are forbidden to smoke within certain distances from entrances, windows and air intakes, and the CRD proposes to extend that perimeter.

But why beaches, parks and playgrounds?

Why not? People go to those places to enjoy the fresh air, an experience that can be greatly diminished if a smoker is in the vicinity. Children should not be exposed to second-hand smoke, nor should parents have to worry that toddlers will pick up the butts invariably strewn about when smokers are present.

One of the criticisms of the proposed new restrictions is that they will be difficult or expensive to enforce. But the regulations give people the legal right to object, and public disapproval will likely be more effective than tickets and penalties. It would mean that a day in the sun on French Beach or a stroll through Beacon Hill Park will not be marred by the smell of tobacco smoke.

The expanded regulations might be seen as interfering with smokers’ rights, but smokers’ rights end when their habit infringes on the well-being of others.

Besides, the Health Ministry says of the 550,000 British Columbians who smoke, 70 per cent would like to quit. This should help.