Smokefree DC Prayer Breakfast and Rally
17 September 2003

SmokefreeDC Prayer Breakfast and Rally

Dc Faith Leaders, Workers, Union Members, Community Organizations, Restaurant Owners And Health Groups Launch Campaign For 100 Percent Smokefree Workplaces

DC Councilmembers Adrian Fenty and Kathy Patterson To Introduce Legislation to Protect All Workers

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Citing secondhand smoke as a public health threat and workplace hazard, groups representing a wide array of constituencies today launched a campaign for legislation requiring all workplaces in the District to be 100 percent smokefree.

Public health officials, ministers, civic activists, restaurant owners and college students joined asthma sufferers, cancer survivors and representatives of organized labor, as well as bar and restaurant workers, in calling for protection from secondhand smoke. The call came at a prayer breakfast hosted by more than 70 leaders of the faith community and at a press conference that followed. Both events were held at the National City Christian Church.

"The truth is simple: Secondhand smoke kills," said Dr. Bailus Walker Jr., Ph.D., M.P.H., a professor of environmental and occupational medicine at Howard University College of Medicine. Walker is also president of the American Lung Association of the District of Columbia and Smokefree DC’s chairman. "For too many in the District, secondhand smoke remains unavoidable. For those who are employed in, visit or frequent many workplaces in the District, harmful, smoke-filled air remains a reality. We call today for a public policy that protects all workers from secondhand smoke."

Added Liz Thorne, president of the Hotel & Restaurant Employees Union Local 25, "Nobody should have to sacrifice their health to do their job, but that is exactly what has been happening for too long. Workers in the nation’s capital deserve the same healthy environment as in cities and states that are already smokefree. Local 25 urges the DC Council and the public to consider the serious hazards that our workers face. Adopt a comprehensive smokefree workplace policy now."

Added the Rev. Dr. Lewis Anthony, "On behalf of all the faith leaders gathered today, I say we have a responsibility –even an obligation – to our kids and our communities to support a strong new law that would make all workplaces 100 percent smokefree."

In response, Councilmembers Adrian Fenty (Ward 4) and Kathy Patterson (Ward 3) announced they will introduce comprehensive smokefree workplace legislation. "This city should not fall behind the curve when it comes to protecting the rights of workers from secondhand smoke," Fenty said. "This issue is a particularly critical one to the District, where asthma rates are so high. Smokefree workplace laws are essential to the public health."

Secondhand smoke is carcinogenic, killing as many as 65,000 people annually in the United States, according to the American Cancer Society. Secondhand smoke contains more than 4,000 chemicals, of which 69 are known or suspected carcinogens. Restaurant and bar workers are 50 percent more likely to get lung cancer from secondhand smoke than other workers, according to a study in The Journal of the American Medical Association.

The District’s law is one of the weakest in the nation in terms of protecting workers from secondhand smoke. In the District, it is legal to smoke in private offices, hospitals and day care centers. Restaurants built or renovated after 1988 may set aside half their tables for smokers, while pre-1988 restaurants may designate 75 percent of their tables for smokers. Bars are exempt from the law.

"For days after I complete my weekend shifts, my lungs are tight, my head is stuffy and my eyes are irritated," said Mike Ferens, a bartender whose asthma is aggravated by the conditions at his job. Ferens has formed a DC chapter of BREATHE, Bar and Restaurant Employees Acting Together for Healthy Environments. "Bar and restaurant employees are not second-class citizens and should not be treated as such. No worker should have to breathe secondhand smoke to have a job."

Said Judith Bauer, a retired District resident who suffers with asthma and often leaves restaurants short of breath, with a sore throat and a headache, "If being in a smoke-filled environment for the two hours it may take for a leisurely meal or a show is such a problem for me, it is certainly a major hazard for anyone working an eight-hour shift and exposed to secondhand smoke on a continuing basis. For anyone with a respiratory condition, it represents a major health hazard. I believe that we need a smokefree DC."

Cities and states throughout the country increasingly are adopting 100 percent smokefree workplace laws, including New York City, Boston, Lexington (Ky.), Albuquerque, California, Delaware, Connecticut, Maine and New York state. Data show that after smokefree laws take effect, bar and restaurant business is just as good, if not better, than before. For instance, in New York City, 1,500 jobs were created in the bar and restaurant industry since March, when that city’s ordinance took effect, according to the New York Department of Labor.

Smokefree DC was formed in January by two concerned District residents, Michael Tacelosky, a Web technology expert who has been active in the tobacco control movement for many years, and Angela Bradbery, a former newspaper reporter who does media relations for a non-profit consumer organization.

Smokefree DC’s partners include Hotel and Restaurant Employees Local #25, the Anacostia Coordinating Council, Assembly of Petworth, the University of the District of Columbia, the DC Asthma Coalition, as well as the DC chapters of the American Lung Association, the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association, the DC student group W.A.Y. Too Cool to Smoke, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, and the National Latino Council on Alcohol and Tobacco Prevention.

In March, Smokefree DC launched a Web site, www.smokefreeDC.org, featuring a petition for people to express their support for 100 percent smokefree workplaces and urge restaurants and bars to go 100 percent smokefree. To date, more than 1,100 people have signed. The site also contains a list of more than 240 smokefree eating and drinking establishments in neighborhoods throughout the District of Columbia. Smokefree DC has been distributing window stickers to those establishments and is working with the city’s Department of Health, which is to issue a printed version of the dining guide.

Smokefree DC (www.smokefreedc.org) is a group of Washington, DC residents and employees who believe everyone deserves to breathe clean, smokefree air. For more information, visit www.smokefreedc.org.