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Smokers'-Rights Advocates Warn of 'Violence' If Public Smoking Ban is Passed

By DNAinfo Staff on October 14, 2010 10:01pm  | Updated on October 15, 2010 6:21am

By Jill Colvin

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

CITY HALL — Tempers flared Thursday as a new proposal to snuff out smoking in city parks and pedestrian plazas took center stage at City Hall — with smokers'-rights advocates warning of violent clashes if the law is passed.

Under the proposed bill, co-sponsored by City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and endorsed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, smoking would be banned in all parks, beaches and plazas such as Times Square.

Violators would be subjected to fines similar to those faced by people who smoke indoors, said Upper West Side City Councilwoman Gale Brewer, a lead proponent of the legislation.

But smokers'-rights advocates fumed before and during the standing-room-only hearing, saying the bill takes the city's war against cigarettes too far.

"This is a hate campaign, not a public health campaign," said Audrey Silk, the founder of Citizens Lobbying Against Smoker Harassment, who warned of conflicts if the law is enforced.

She said that smokers have been the targets of violent attacks in the past, and that the proposed law would only "incite violence" and create "hostile confrontations in a city that really doesn’t need it."

A competing bill, which was sponsored by Queens City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr., would create smoking sections within parks, akin to the old smoking sections in restaurants, but would not apply to public squares or plazas.

"Indoor smoking bills never worked well. It was like having a urinating section in the pool," Vallone said at the hearing, arguing that outside smoke dissipates faster, minimizing the problem.

Before the hearing began, dozens of supporters took to City Hall's steps to describe the dangers of second-hand smoke.

"There is no safe level of second-hand smoke. Not inside. Not outside. Not anywhere," said Maureen Killackey, chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society of New York and New Jersey, and medical director at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

She listed off the carcinogens in tobacco smoke and argued that laws are the most effective tools the city has to decrease illnesses caused by smoke.

Residents like Brooklyn's Joe Appelbaum, 63, complained of intimidation and illness related to outdoor smoking, and said he'd been driven from city parks because of smoke.

"The smell is horrific. Its horrendous. It's sickening," he said.

"We're sick of them breathing and smoking and sending off this... poison," he added.

But Dave Goerlitz, a former "Winston Man"-turned-anti-smoking advocate, railed against the plan.

He dismissed studies exposing the dangers of second-hand smoke as "junk science," and said that as long as tobacco is legal, smokers should not be attacked.

"They are not lepers or second-class citizens," he said. "Government has gone way too far."

Linda Stewart, a writer who lives on the Upper West Side, said the ban is discriminatory and compared it to the policies of Nazi Germany or the Jim Crow laws.

"The only disease being spread through this city — and being sewn in this chamber — is the ancient disease of irrational discrimination," she testified.

She and others vowed that if the law is passed, they will not comply.

Brewer said that she understands those who say their freedom is being encroached upon, but said her ultimate goal is to keep people from getting sick.

"The fact of the matter is, our public health is at risk as a collective," she said. "That trumps everything else."

She also dismissed threats of violence, saying she'd heard similar talk when the city introduced the smoking ban in bars and restaurants.

While most of those who testified seemed opposed to giving ground, Vallone said he's hopeful his version or another will pass.

"I think the prospect for a compromise is a good one," he said.

The Council will likely hold a second hearing before deciding how to move forward, Vallone said.

A woman smokes in Lincoln Square in 2008. Smoking in city parks and beaches would be banned under a new proposal that will be debated Thursday.
A woman smokes in Lincoln Square in 2008. Smoking in city parks and beaches would be banned under a new proposal that will be debated Thursday.
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Flickr/Ed Yourdon