Refutation of Counterargument:
James Repace, is a former senior science policy analyst who worked at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Occupational Safety & Health
Administration (OSHA) for 19 years and as a research physicist at the Naval Research
Laboratory for 11 years. According to Repace, OSHA first proposed regulating secondhand smoke as a workplace hazard after determining that it caused as many as 14,000 worker deaths annually, far surpassing any other toxic hazard to workers.
Subsequently, the National Cancer Institute endorsed an estimate by the California EPA
that passive smoking caused as many as 65,000 deaths a year in the United States from heart disease and lung cancer alone (Repace, 2004).
Furthermore, while nobody is obligated to work (or to eat) in any particular restaurant, there is no justification for requiring non-smokers to choose between taking a specific job and eating at a restaurant or subjecting themselves to second-hand smoke. In principle, non-smoking restaurant workers should not have to make the choice between accepting a job offer at the expense of their health or rejecting it and non-smokers in public should not have to be exposed to medical risks that others choose to take without their consent.
Conclusion:
The fact that second-hand smoke is harmful is no longer in question and the dangers involved are more serious than many other types of pollutants that we regulate very strictly to protect public health, safety, and welfare....
If anything, the available information about the consequences of smoking (both first and second hand), suggest that the real question is whether smoking should be permitted anywhere outside of private property and whether smokers should be held more responsible for paying for a greater share of healthcare costs attributable to their choice to ignore the recommendations of medical authorities and government agencies responsible for protecting human health.
References
Aamot, Gregg. "At One Minnesota Bar, the Show's Over" Associated Press, March 14,
2008. Retrieved April 20, 2009, from the Fox News website, at:
http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2008Mar14/0,4670,SmokingBanLoophole,00.html
Nizza, Mike. "Watering Down Smoking Bans" The New York Times, March 28, 2008.
Retrieved April 20, 2009, from The New York Times website, at:
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/28/watering-down-smoking-bans/?hp
O'Neill, Xana and Lite, Jordan. "Real Estate Companies Making it Tougher for Smokers
in Their Homes" The New York Daily News, March 30, 2008. Retrieved April 20,
2009, from the NY Daily News website, at:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2008/03/30/2008-0330_real_estate_companies_making_it_tougher_.html
Repace, James. "Who's Protecting Workers' Health?" Washington Post, August 27,
2004; A20. Retrieved April 20, 2009 from the Washington Post public website, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37210-2004Aug26.html.
