Doctor: We all pay for smokers
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By ROD STETZER mailto:rod.stetzer@lee.net
Monday, January 28, 2008 10:01 AM CST
EAU CLAIRE — George Sutor wants to be able to run Big Swede’s Resort and Campground in Holcombe the way he sees fit. That includes allowing his bar and restaurant customers to smoke.
Sutor didn’t care for the tenor of what was billed by the American Cancer Society as a town hall meeting Sunday in Eau Claire over Senate Bill 150, a bill that would ban smoking in workplaces, including taverns and restaurants.
He guesses 80 percent of the more than 70 people at the session at Sweetwater’s restaurant never frequent a bar. Many at the session didn’t understand that what they were talking about was affecting people’s livelihoods, he said.
Sutor, who has never smoked, said he has a group of customers who live in houses worth $500,000 or more. If a smoking ban passes, he warns, “I can see them having a lot more garage parties and not coming to my bar to drink.”
Dr. Steven Cook understands the economic argument being made by tavern owners. But as a physician at Family Health Associates in Chippewa Falls and the public health officer for the city, he has seen the effects of smoking first hand.
“I want everybody to take as deep a breath as they can and hold it for a second. Now imagine the rest of your life you could never let that out and you had to breathe on top of that. That is what almost every single smoker goes through.,” said Cook, one of the presenters at the meeting.
“I have watched countless people suffocate to death over several years. And it’s awful to watch. It’s terrifying to watch. And you’re helpless sometimes to do stuff about this.
“Now, that being said, do I understand about making your own choices and personal freedom? You bet. Do I love that about America that you get make choices on things? You bet.
“But I also realize there’s a responsibility to try to help to minimize the suffering that people are going to have that they don’t realize they are going to have. And as a physician . . . I want to try to get as many people out of that situation as I can.”
Sutor said he tries to help his customers who don’t want to experience second-hand smoke. His business has three air purifying machines that he calls smoke eaters. The machines are cleaned every other week at a cost of $20 per machine. And the business has another machine to reduce the amount of ozone from the smoke.
Even the solution his business uses to clean floors is designed to kill the odor from smoke, he said.
Sutor said he respects restaurants and bars that decide on their own not to allow smoking. But he doesn’t want government to make the decision for him.
“Where does it stop from here?” he asked. “What are they going to take away next?”
But Cook said a smoking ban in the workplace is a step forward.
“No one has talked about the economics. We know if you look at the studies there’s a significant portion of people I see who are on the taxpayers’ dollars who are suffering from smoking consequences.”
Cook said countless people who smoke have wanted him to write a prescription for Tylenol because they said they couldn’t afford it. But he points out to them that they can afford the cigarettes.
“And health care is already ridiculously expensive. You’re paying for it. Believe me, you’re paying for every smoker out here in some way or the other,” Cook said.
“The more things we can do to try to minimize the problem, the better. That’s the way I look at it. This is one more step in that direction.
“Does it cross the lines of freedom? Yeah, it does and I don’t like that. But is it something in the long run where we all end up better and our kids end up better for it? You bet.”
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