Cigarette smoke and smoking guns are both community health issues
By Bill Settlemyer
President and CEO, Setcom Media
Jan. 10 was a red-letter day for the advancement of health and wellness in the Charleston region. That was the day Charleston City Council voted 9-4 in favor of a comprehensive smoke-free ordinance that would protect workers and visitors in the area’s indoor workplaces.
As we all know, almost all public indoor workplaces have long been smoke-free, with restaurants and bars as the only exceptions. This glaring omission is now being remedied; smoke-free laws and ordinances are sweeping across the nation and the world, for the simple reason that public awareness of the hazards of second-hand smoke has finally reached a tipping point. The public has concluded that it’s unhealthy, unfair and unwise to expose workers and the general public to second-hand smoke.
I was one of many who spoke in favor of the new ordinance during the public comment period at the council meeting on Jan. 10. I was in good company, which included the Charleston branch of the NAACP, Trident United Way, Charleston Area League of Women Voters, the Hollings Cancer Center, the Medical University of South Carolina, the American Lung Association, the S.C. Hospital Association, the College of Charleston and the state Department of Health and Environmental Control, among others.
The statements by those in favor of the ordinance were persuasive and heartfelt, and when it came time for the smaller number of opponents to speak against the ordinance, it was like the air had gone out of a balloon; they just couldn’t counter the overwhelming evidence that the public health considerations should carry the day.
The final approval of the Charleston ordinance may come as early as Jan. 23. This has truly been a grass-roots citizens’ initiative, backed by credible leaders, knowledgeable experts and ordinary citizens with a passion for making our community a better place to live.
Regrettably, a number of local and state political leaders are still speaking out against smoke-free legislation. I hope they’ll take the time to read the surgeon general’s report on the hazards of second-hand smoke and consider that a strong majority of South Carolina’s citizens and civic leaders (and voters) now favor regulations that provide all workers with a smoke-free working environment.
Community health, smoking guns
During the debate on Charleston’s smoke-free ordinance, those present heard pleas from several African-American council members for business and civic leaders to speak with equal fervor on the issue of guns, drugs and violence in low-income neighborhoods. Council members Wendell Gilliard and Jimmy Gallant have long been on the front lines as civic and political leaders on these tough issues.
The morning following the council’s vote on the ordinance, I chaired the monthly meeting of Trident United Way’s Promoting Health and Wellness Vision Council. We allowed ourselves a few high fives on the outcome of the vote, but we then turned to a discussion of Wendell Gilliard’s impassioned remarks about the burden of guns, drugs and violence on the area’s low-income black communities.
We agreed that the business and civic community ought to respond more effectively than we have in the past. Councilman Gilliard is right: There’s really no excuse for ignoring the scope and impact of these problems, all of which do great harm to the economic and social health of our regional community.
That’s not to say a few meetings and conferences will fix things. Those are Band-Aids. The larger issues are ones that we do pay attention to at Trident United Way, like early childhood education, quality child care, dropout prevention, medical care for low-income children, support for families in distress and a multitude of related needs.
Likewise, area chambers of commerce and The Education Foundation, operated with the support of the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce, have worked diligently to support quality public education for all children in the region, especially those from low-income and minority communities and neighborhoods where outcomes consistently fall short.
We all need to recognize that these are tough challenges. If they were easy to fix they’d have been resolved a long time ago. But whatever level of effort we’re making now, we need to ask what more we can do. One answer is to create more direct links from leaders like Councilman Gilliard and his constituents to civic and business organizations, including area chambers and Trident United Way.
From a business and economic viewpoint, the relative lack of economic progress on the part of the region and the state’s African-American population represents a root cause of South Carolina’s low economic ranking. But it also represents a great opportunity, because if we do a better job of helping everyone, regardless of race, ethnicity or economic standing, achieve more productive lives, we all benefit.
The long and painful history of race relations in the South was born out of exploitation and the desire of the white majority to maintain their own status by denying opportunity to minorities. We have long since entered an era when the South’s most enlightened leaders recognize that the old attitudes have no place in helping the South to rise again. When we rise this time, we do it together or not at all.
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