By Norman G.Axe
As a non-smoker, I applaud the City Council’s new smoking ban. In law school, we were taught the axiom:“Your rights end where my nose begins.”This pithily highlights the injury limitation on rights — of either the majority or minority. Smoking’s consequences are not confined to the smoker. A smoker’s right to do himself harm is absolute in isolation; that right is limited by harm to others when not in isolation. Thus, where cause and harmful effect are undisputed, society’s rights can properly interfere with the freedom of the individual.
The harm caused by tobacco has been known for over 400 years, as evidenced by King James I of England in his 1604 Counterblast to Tobacco: “A custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black, stinking fume thereof, nearest resembling the horrible Stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless.”
Hopefully, some day some the President will use the bully pulpit to preach to our citizens the dangers of smoking and criticize the television and movie industry for continuing to show smoking in their shows and films. The President should even ask the nation to boycott such shows and films.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 4, 2006. Read the original PDF.