SMOKING BAN

You don't have to be a smoker to recognize what's going on at the Columbia Basin Hospital. The tobacco ban is discrimination.

When the law was passed prohibiting smoking in public places, tobacco users were forced to the curb. 

Wouldn't it have been sensible to allow business owners to designate their establishment as smoking or non-smoking? That would give us an opportunity to select which businesses we wished to support. Perhaps the time has come to consider repeal. Free enterprise and free choices are freedoms we must protect.

CBH Board President was quoted in the Columbia Basin Herald as saying, "We're trying to put a program in place to help people quit. If they don't want to quit, they'll just have to go off the property, which can be hard but is do-able." Don't that sound like a personal agenda? This could create a negative impact in patient load, so be careful what you ask for. How long will it be until a smoker can expect inferior care?

CBH employees using tobacco products should be outraged. How long until smokers need not apply? Isn't that discrimination in the job market?

When will it become mandatory that overweight employees change eating habits and exercise regiments? Would CBH be justified in monitoring an employee's eating habits on campus? Would CBH be confiscating the candy bar or the fries in an employee's possession?

Do cameras need to be installed in the bathrooms to assure all are exercising sanitary practices?

It's no surprise. Not all habits are healthy. But to become the target of discrimination because we wish to preserve our right to choose is the most unhealthy situation we can face.

Smoker or non-smoker, fit or overweight, enjoying a cocktail or not, the freedom to choose is yours for now.

Jo Davis

Ephrata