SMOKING BANS -- THE NEWEST FORM OF PROHIBITION??

The City of Chicago's new smoking ban, effective January 16, 2006, is only one of many such ordinances recently enacted or anticipated to take effect in the coming months. Smokers are now finding new strict limitations on where they can publicly light up. Though bars and restaurants that serve alcohol are excluded from this ordinance until July 1, 2008, smoking within the workplace, in public facilities, recreational areas and government vehicles has been affected. Lighting up outside even carries restrictions requiring smokers to now be a minimum of fifteen feet from entrances to public facilities.

This new ban in the City of Chicago follows a trend among the North Shore Suburban communities where many similar bans were already in place. One of the first communities to invoke an ordinance regarding the banning of smoking in public places and places of employment was Wilmette. Now both Highland Park and Winnetka have followed suit and also have such stringent regulations. Information on Highland Park's ordinance can be located at http://www.cityofhpil.com/pdf/ordinances/chatper100.pdf.

More recently, on January 1, 2006 Lake Forest Hospital also enacted a no-exception policy prohibiting the use of tobacco products anywhere on their grounds. To obtain details on that policy you can visit http://www.lakeforesthospital.com. But the latest and by-far most restrictive ordinance of its type in the entire state was adopted by the Village of Deerfield at their December 2005 Board of Trustees meeting. By unanimous vote, Deerfield will soon join the growing list of communities in this area that prohibit smoking almost anywhere except within a private residence. Amazingly, this ordinance even places controls on smoking within your own home when you run a home-based business employing more than one person! This new Deerfield ordinance will be effective on March 1, 2006. Deerfield's entire Smoke Free Ordinance can be read at http://www.deerfield-il.org/images/adoptedsmokingordinance.pdf.

So the watch word for smokers now is clear ... be careful where you smoke and better yet, quit! It surely seems that this new trend is designed to encourage no use of tobacco whatsoever. Interestingly, public reaction to these new restrictive ordinances is mixed. While the vast majority of folks clearly understand the health risks associated with smoking, many (and in some cases a clear majority) of those same people feel that these new laws only serve to limit civil liberties, a trend that is not overwhelmingly supported and rightfully ask ... what's next?