The Medical Affairs Committee will soon discuss the subcommittee recommendations to cope with some state-owned buildings that have lounges and offices where smoking is allowed. When the committee does, it should consider throwing the book, so to speak, at people who violate the law.
On the surface, the bill has merit. It targets the elimination of secondhand smoke and is intended to ensure that role models, such as school coaches and teachers, aren't smoking around students, said Sen. Mike Fair, R-Greenville.
Unfortunately, increasing the fine from $10 to $20 won't stop many people who are addicted to cigarettes and cigars. This is one of those feel good bills that only pushes the author's name in front of the public.
This bill is a proposal that Gov. Mark Sanford should use his bully pulpit to change. Sanford has a goal of a healthier state population. A way to achieve that goal would be to ban smoking on all state property. Another way would be to redirect money into programs that convince people, especially teens, to quit smoking.
Health experts evaluating the effect of smoking bans in workplaces say that on average exposure to components of environmental tobacco smoke is reduced by 72 percent. Fewer teens also smoke as a result of bans in schools and other public places. The state should do more to reduce smoking.
Instead of increasing the fine to $20, legislators should be proposing to ban smoking in at least elementary and secondary schools, but probably colleges and universities, as well.
There is a correlation between the state's ranking as the third-largest tobacco-producing state and the 36 percent of high school students who smoke. According to the Washington, D.C.-based Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, 90,000 students will die in the years ahead because they started smoking when they were teenagers.
Last year, this newspaper said that South Carolinians face many crises and the state is generally willing to help. The state willingly steps up to help prevent epidemics of AIDS and flu and the carnage caused by traffic accidents. Yet, it abandons its responsibility to help thwart the greatest epidemic to ever hit South Carolina -- smoking.
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and the 2000 census, more South Carolinians die each year of smoking-related illnesses than from AIDS, liver disease, breast cancer, car accidents and several other causes combined. Data show that 5,992 people died last year of smoking-related illnesses. That is nearly twice as many as a select group of causes, including murder, suicide, infant death, illegal drugs and fires.
South Carolina, four other states and the District of Columbia spend the least to eradicate smoking among the population.
Since 2000, South Carolina has spent less than 1 percent of a $912 million one-time settlement from tobacco companies. In 2001, the state used $1.7 million to start Rage Against the Haze, which was the only program of its kind in the United States to educate teenagers about the ills of smoking. The state earmarked $5.5 million over the next three years. Legislators didn't earmark even a dime this fiscal year. The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control managed to move around $400,000 to continue the Rage Against the Haze program, and the CDC gave the state a $1.1 million grant.
As the Medical Affairs Committee considers this inadequate bill, maybe senators will be able to see how little they are doing to discourage a deadly addiction.
In the meantime, public officials should dutifully enforce the existing law.