This Town’s Not Big Enough for Smokers

FRIENDSHIP HEIGHTS, Md. —  In this trendy neighborhood of luxury high-rise apartments and upscale shops, directly in the shadow of Tiffany & Co. and a scant few steps from the District of Columbia line, the nation’s decades-long war on smoking has finally moved outdoors.

This tiny “village” of nearly 33 acres and 5,000 residents--which most people in the area don’t even realize is a separate jurisdiction--recently approved the most restrictive anti-smoking measure in the country.

It forbids lighting up anywhere outside on public property--that means sidewalks, streets, parks, building entrances--anything owned or maintained by the local government. You can smoke inside your car, but don’t get out of it with a lighted cigarette. You can smoke inside your condo, but don’t take it out on the street.

To be sure, Friendship Heights is not the first jurisdiction to restrict outside smoking. Other cities have slapped bans on single facilities, such as stadiums, outdoor theaters, parks and beaches. But Friendship Heights has taken the idea way beyond that of any other community.

“This is on the very cutting edge of smoke-free air,” said Tim Filler, program manager of the Berkeley-based Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights, an advocacy group that teaches communities how to enact smoke-free air policies. “This could be the next logical progression in clearing smoke from the air.”

Whether Friendship Heights’ sweeping ban will hold up under legal challenge is debatable, although outdoor bans in other cities have been upheld by the courts. The legal skirmishes already have begun. A county circuit court last week issued a temporary injunction on enforcing the new law until after a Feb. 15 hearing.

The notion of banning outdoor smoking may seem quirky--even radical now--but so did indoor restrictions 20 years ago. In 1985, 159 communities had restrictions on indoor smoking; today there are nearly 1,000. Likewise, there are now 79 communities--in addition to Friendship Heights--that have some form of outdoor smoking ban, and at least 10 of them have imposed them in multiple outdoor sites, including Alameda County and Palo Alto.

Friendship Heights would not be taking this bold step into smoke-free streets were it not for its crusading mayor, Dr. Alfred Muller. An internist who has been elected 13 times, Muller is obsessed with the public health threat posed by smoking. A dozen years ago, long before the idea caught fire nationally, he got the village elders to ban cigarette machines. Under Muller’s stewardship for 25 years, the village has also formally recognized the Baltic states, endorsed equal health care for all Americans and tried to bar bullets.

Not all his constituents are thrilled. One recent letter writer called Muller a “fascist dictator” for denying citizens the right to smoke in the open air. To which the mayor responds: “The fascists killed people. We’re trying to save lives.”

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The tobacco industry is also less than complimentary. Describing Muller as “a self-appointed surgeon general who wants to impose his health views on everyone else,” Bruce C. Bereano, a Baltimore lobbyist hired by the Maryland Assn. of Candy and Tobacco Wholesalers, is preparing a lawsuit challenging the Friendship Heights ban.

Bereano argues that the law is flawed and attacks it as a violation of civil liberties and “a governmental intrusion into people’s lives. How can you force someone sitting on an open park bench to not smoke? Why should he stand up and leave just ‘cause you want to sit down?”

But Filler counters: “It’s a question of the government’s right to regulate activities on public property for the safety of the public. You can’t, for example, walk down a public street carrying open alcohol containers. You can’t relieve yourself on the sidewalk.”

The argument that exposure to outdoor smoke poses a public health risk is based on incomplete science. None of the studies conducted on hazards of environmental smoke on nonsmokers has ever separated outdoor exposure from indoor. Thus, scientists still really don’t know the extent of the hazard that secondhand smoke poses outside.

Still, the Environmental Protection Agency has labeled environmental tobacco smoke a carcinogen, and concluded that exposure to secondhand smoke causes at least 3,000 lung cancer deaths annually among nonsmokers. Other studies have shown that breathing environmental tobacco smoke is a factor in heart disease, low birth weight, sudden infant death syndrome, nasal sinus cancer, and asthma in children.

“The heavier the exposure, the greater the risk,” said Dr. Corinne Husten, a medical officer with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s office on smoking and health. “Perhaps the intensity is less if you’re outside and the smoke is dissipating--but it’s not necessarily a lower exposure if you’re outside, sitting next to someone who’s blowing smoke in your face.”

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But local businesses worry that the ban will seem a bit radical--to say nothing of unenforceable--to customers.

“It’s an image problem,” said Cleonice Tavani, president of the Friendship Heights Civic Assn., which last fall voted to oppose the measure. “We are not a community of radicals, and this is a radical move.”

Tavani, a social worker who is thinking about challenging Muller’s bid for a 14th term, added: “Even though we are very much concerned with people’s health and know smoking isn’t good for you, we just feel that this is going too far in trying to control the smoking of competent adults.”

Noting that there are a number of high-end retail stores on the boundary with Chevy Chase--with back doors and garage entrances within village limits--she said she feared shoppers would become confused over where they could--and couldn’t--smoke.

“I’m waiting to see: Are they going to draw yellow lines down the street? You could literally step one foot and be in the wrong place.”

Friendship Heights’ law is effective immediately, although village officials plan to phase in enforcement after an education campaign and “cooling off” period. Smokers will receive a warning first; if they continue to violate the law, they will be fined $100.

Muller adds that the fine for littering is $1,000, so smokers would also be ill-advised to dump the contents of their car ashtrays on public property.

He believes citizens will obey the law once they get used to the idea that they can’t light up even if they are alone on public property in the middle of the night and yearn for a smoke. “You still have to stop at a stop sign, even if it’s 2 a.m.,” he said.