Today, bars, restaurants, and workplaces across DC are at last smoke-free.
No longer will Garret and Gwen come home with random burns on their skin from drunk girls waving fire around with reckless abandon.
No longer will carcinogenic secondhand smoke be blown in our faces.
But most importantly, this is a victory in the battle against unnecessary laundering. No longer will a perfectly clean sweatshirt or pair of jeans have to be washed simply because I spent twenty minutes at a happy hour.
From the Smokefree DC FAQ:
- What’s wrong with smoking and non-smoking sections? Isn’t that a good way to make everybody happy?
- No. Smoking and non-smoking sections in restaurants are misnomers. Smoke travels; it knows no boundaries. Having smoking and non-smoking sections is like have peeing and non-peeing sections in a swimming pool – it doesn’t work. Like that yellow substance in the water, smoke circulates, and everybody is exposed to it.
- Won’t bars and restaurants lose business if they go smokefree?
- No. Every reliable study of sales tax data shows that in localities that have gone smokefree, business is just as good – if not better – than when smoking was permitted.