In the past few weeks, several individuals who have written letters about the new law that will eliminate smoking in bars have compared cigarette smoke to alcohol. They suggest that if smoking is banned, then alcohol should be banned too. These folks are missing the point. The new law will further regulate where, not whether, one can smoke. Smoking will not be banned.

Alcohol is a legal product. However, it is not legal to drink and drive, because of the potential harm to others. For the same reason, we also prohibit bars from serving alcohol to persons who are visibly intoxicated, and drinking is prohibited in the workplace.

Likewise, tobacco is a legal product. That does not mean that smokers should be permitted to harm others with their tobacco smoke. Secondhand smoke contains more than 4,000 chemicals, many of which are known to cause cancer in humans and for which there is no safe level of exposure. Virtually everyone admits that smoking is dangerous. Over half of all smokers die from their addiction. How can the same smoke not be dangerous to nonsmokers? The smoke coming off the end of a burning cigarette doesn’t even go through a cigarette filter.

Workers in most workplaces have been protected from secondhand smoke since 1986. Workers in bars deserve the same protection.

The new law does not ban smoking. It simply makes clear that while smokers have a right to smoke, that right ends where their behavior harms other people.

Bonnie Bickford, Sabattus