Secondhand smoke and restaurants

I am not a member of the Smoke-Free Cape committee, but I sincerely hope that the measure passes. Restaurant owners are afraid of losing business if the measure passes, but they already are. There are restaurants I avoid because of the smoke. Many restaurants only pretend to have nonsmoking sections. For instance, one restaurant allows smoking in the central area around the bar and has an outer ring of two rows of tables that they call nonsmoking. Thus a nonsmoker is either right next to a smoking table or one table away.

Many restaurants have little or no separation between smoking and nonsmoking areas. The last time I was at this restaurant, the smokers wanted to politely not blow their smoke on the people at their own table and instead blew it over the heads of the nonsmoking table beside them. The smell of smoke was overpowering, and we were seated by the window. My solution is to avoid the restaurant. I pity the poor employees that wait tables because they breathe that air all the time.

Secondhand smoke is a proven danger to the health of those who breathe it. Smoking is not a "choice" issue. One article compared smoking to eating Doritos, and it said that no one wanted to take away my right to eat Doritos in public. They might if I threw the Doritos in their face and tossed crumbs in their lap.

LINDA TANSIL, Cape Girardeau