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Author: DONALD WAGNER
Mr.Wagner is a board member and past president of the American Lung
Association of Orange County. Three other officers of the Lung Association
contributed to this column: President Karan Nelson: Treasurer Alex Accetta:
and board member Michele Brown.The views expressed are the authors'
personal opinions, not those of the Lung Association.

GUEST COLUMN

Cities' new policy stinks worse than any cigarette

Antismoking regulations invade private lives of police officers and
firefighters

The cities of Anaheim, Brea, Buena Park and Fullerton recently announced
that city police officers and firefighters would no longer be permitted
either to smoke off duty and in the privacy of their own homes or to
otherwise use tobacco products. Violation of this new policy could result
in termination from the force. This stinks worse than any cigarette.

No doubt the cities are acting here from the best of intentions. Smoking
greatly damages the smoker's lungs and undeniably leads to a shortened life
expectancy. Death from lung cancer or emphysema is excruciatingly painful
for the patients and their families. As American Lung Association
volunteers, we are dedicated to reducing and hopefully someday
eliminating completely that pain.

But good intentions alone do not justify everything done in the service of
those intentions. Individual freedom still matters! Unfortunately, that
freedom has been thrown aside by these antismoking laws.

Moreover, there is no good reason to trade this further loss of liberty for
these new smoking regulations because they are, in fact, wholly
unnecessary. Federal and state law already significantly restrict smokers
and smoking. The word is out, but in case you haven't heard: Smoking kills
not everyone and not right away but smoking kills.

Smoking rates have dropped dramatically across the country. Help exists
through the Lung Association and elsewhere for those who want to quit. The
vast majority of smokers have already started smoking long before they are
ever old enough to join a police or fire department.

In short, these laws cannot reasonably be expected to educate anyone
further to the dangers of cigarettes or to stop from smoking anyone who
otherwise might have started.

Additionally, these intrusive laws can only be enforced through the most
onerous and unAmerican of all police tactics resorting to snitching on
friends and neighbors and to the snooping of Big Brother. Either that or
they will go unenforced or, worse, selectively enforced. These laws can
provide a smoke screen behind which unscrupulous managers or coworkers will
hide to take action against a fellow employee for discriminatory, illegal
or fanciful reasons.

Finally, it is simply not the place for government or any employer to
dictate the most minute behavior to their employees when they are off duty.
Remember, the good intentions of these cities alone cannot be the
determining factor. Liberty is at stake.

If these laws remain on the books, additional wellintentioned and more
intrusive laws will surely follow. No doubt these cities, and others like
minded, can use the precedent to limit or eliminate offduty alcohol use,
dictate only "safe sex" practices and govern the amount of dietary fat and
cholesterol consumed by their employees. There are no limits to this power.
This is the direction in which we are heading.

Laws such as these elevate health over living free. Laws such as these have
it backward.

Surely the municipal officials who passed these inappropriate laws, not to
speak of the police and fire departments expected to both enforce and live
with them, have better things to do than snoop on their friends and
neighbors off duty and at home. The cities should rescind their
antiAmerican antismoking laws. They should then stand with us and say
that in Orange County in 1997 personal freedom matters.

FURTHER THE DISCUSSION

We continue to trade liberty for a little security

Thomas Jefferson wrote in a letter to James Madison, "A society that will
trade a little liberty for a little security, will lose both and deserve
neither." This statement is as true today as it was 200 years ago. However,
we have not done well in heeding this warning.

Recently, police officers in four Orange County cities were forced to trade
a portion of their freedom for a job. No smoking at home, no smoking
outside, no smoking period. They gave up their rights without a fight.
Apparently, the very people chosen to uphold our rights have little regard
for their own.

What will be next? Will they soon be prohibited from eating highfat foods,
participating in dangerous extracurricular activities or even attending
politically incorrect churches? There will be a good reason. It will be
necessary "for their own good." In contrast, William Pitt said, "Necessity
is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."

If the government can demand the rights of smokers, they can demand your
rights too. If you wait until your particular rights are the target, it may
be too late. I do not smoke. As a matter of fact, I hate smoking. However,
freedom means letting people do things you may not like. I find it sad that
"Give me liberty or give me death" has been replaced by "Show me the
money."