The handwriting certainly appears on the wall that smoking bans are constitutional and those opposing such bans just cannot get the message.
Ohio's Supreme Court is the most recent court to rule the state has the legal right to enact legislation to "protect the health of the workers and other citizens of Ohio ... It does so by regulating proprietors of public places and places of employment in a minimally invasive way," the court's ruling read.
Just like here in the Mid-Ohio Valley, bar owners had complained the ban hurt their business and was illegally taking property, thus violating the state's legitimate police powers.
Ohio's ban bars smoking in most indoor public places and was overwhelmingly approved by Ohio voters in 2006 and took effect in 2007.
In the Mid-Ohio Valley it was the multi-county health department that enacted the ban on indoor smoking and faced vehement opposition from smokers and a lawsuit from bar owners. Circuit Court Judge Jeff Reed eventually ruled in favor of the health department's legal right to impose the ban.
The bar owners argued the ban violated free choice and anyone who didn't want to be in a smoke-filled bar/restaurant merely could avoid the issue by not patronizing the establishment. That argument, though, did not take into consideration employees, vendors and others who by reason of their employment had to frequent the smoke-filled locations nor did it take into consideration the number of restaurants that formerly had smoking areas where non-smokers had to walk through to get to the non-smoking area or the smoke that spread into the non-smoking area.
The need to protect the health of non-smokers out weighs the "rights" of smokers to light up where ever they wish. It's very similar to the adage of one's right to swing an arm ends at another's nose.
Speaking of health issues, look out, world, coffee may not be bad for us after all!
A recent New England Journal of Medicine published a report by the National Cancer Institute that indicated, believe it or not, coffee, be it caffeinated or decaffeinated, may actually help extend the life of those of us who drink it.
According to the study, men who drank 2 to 3 cups a day had a 10 percent chance of outliving those who drank no coffee, while women had a 13 percent advantage, according to published research.
Of course, the study went on to say more investigation is needed and the researchers had no idea why the tendency was apparent in the study.
All I know is I contribute my share to the 77.4 billion cups of coffee consumed by Americans a year and I'm most definitely among the 64 percent of U.S. adults who drink coffee every day.
I'm also above the 3.2 cups Americans consume a day, except on weekends when I only drink it at breakfast. But, during the week I shattered that daily consumption level as I drink it throughout the day.
The study went out to state men who drank 2 to 3 cups a day had a 14 percent lower risk of dying from heart disease, 17 percent lower risk of dying from respiratory disease, 16 percent decreased chance of dying from stroke and a 25 percent lower risk of dying from diabetes than those who drank no coffee.
For women, those who drank 2 to 3 cups of coffee a day had a 15 percent lower chance of dying from heart disease, 21 percent lower risk of dying from respiratory disease, 7 percent decreased chance of dying from stroke and a 23 percent lower risk of dying from diabetes.
In most cases, drinking six or more cups a coffee a day for men and women lowered the risk even further, which means if that statistic is right, I'm good to go for many years!
