From the "Go Cold Turkey" to the "Inhale Life" ads, it is clear that nonsmokers are on a mission, and with good cause. The arguments against smoking are plentiful: improve your health, prolong your life, clean up the air and get that nasty smoke-residue smell out of your clothes; these all fall into the category of common sense.
Current trends favor the nonsmoker as well. In cities from New York to Tempe, smoking has been banned in enclosed public places. Smokers shiver together outside pubs, post offices and shopping malls while nonsmokers happily eat, drink and shop in a smoke-free environment.
In recent years, the hospitality industry has volunteered to reinvent itself in this way, too. Midsized hotel chains like Howard Johnson and Comfort Inn have eliminated smoking rooms in many of their hotels. According to The Associated Press, these companies cite reasons such as more guest requests, as well as reduced costs and easier cleaning to maintain a nonsmoking room. They say many families are drawn to their hotels because of the policy. Approximately 16 percent of hotel rooms nationwide now are smoking rooms, which is a 4 percent decrease over the past five years.
According to the American Heart Association, 26 percent of American men and 21 percent of women are smokers. Studies show that these numbers shoot up among those with 11 or fewer years of school and among those living below the poverty level.
In other words, there is a socioeconomic line between the smokers and nonsmokers, albeit a blurry one. Smoking is starting to take on a stigma of being a socially unacceptable middle-class activity (unless you're in the ninth grade and hanging out behind Safeway).
In states with lower median income levels, like Oklahoma, smoking is even permitted in some grocery stores. For Tempeans who can't even light up in dive bars, that may seem absurd.
Why should those in Tempe breathe free while those in Apache Junction cough? If we are going to cut out smoking in public places, let's do it across the board. Otherwise, the health benefits are available only to those who live in areas heavily populated with nonsmokers - which generally means richer neighborhoods inhabited by educated adults. Smoking is a health issue - but it shouldn't become a socioeconomic one, too.
I take issue with the hotels' decision because hotels aren't really public places: a lot of really private things go on in hotel rooms. In fact, hotel rooms are designed for privacy. If only nonsmokers are made to feel at home in specific hotels, that action could potentially raise the hotel chains' popularity among the educated business class (of whom only 12 percent are smokers) and those with families who can afford to travel and stay in hotels. Again, the smokers are left out in the cold.
From the "Inhale Life" ads (if you don't recall, each commercial features a first-person view of someone kayaking or mountain biking and breathing heavily), a person might get the impression that smokers aren't physically active or can't enjoy the same things as a nonsmoker might. And that isn't true. If not for the nature of addiction and the persistence of habit, surely we'd all be stubbing our ciggies out for good.
Whatever your stance is on the smoking issue, try to remember that smokers aren't a lesser people and shouldn't be stigmatized as such. If everyone with a bad habit were made to stay in a special room, regular hotel rooms would be completely vacant.
Emily Lyons is a journalism senior. Reach her at emily.lyons@asu.edu.
