"Opinion: Unsafe 'exemptions' for Indianapolis airport smoking ban"

Friday, December 28, 2007

Letter to the Editor
Unsafe 'exemptions' for airport smoking ban
The Indianapolis (IN) Star

            
Ah, sweet irony. At the same hour the body of lung-cancer victim Julia
Carson rolled by the home of my late wife, a second-hand smoke victim, the
Indianapolis Airport Authority decided to open the door for "exemptions" and
"exceptions" to the smoking ban it wisely enacted just a few months ago.
Apparently, some tenants on airport property want smoking allowed as "an
operational and/or economic issue."
  
As authority members hear arguments on this issue on Jan. 4 and weigh
whether to give the airport director the power to play God with people's
lives and health by designating smoking areas, I hope they'll consider the
"economic issue" my wife and I faced during the last 12 months of her life
when billed charges for her cancer treatment topped a third of a million
dollars. While they're at it, perhaps they'll also decide whether a few
"exemptions" and "exceptions" should be made for passengers passing through
airport security with weapons, or an unlicensed pilot or two. After all,
exceptions to smoking bans kill far more people than exceptions to air
safety.

Bruce Hetrick
Indianapolis


 Do you have an opinion about this story?
Share it with other readers in our CAA Discussion Forums

http://www.californiaaviation.org/dcfp/dcboard.php


*****************************************