I don't envy stand up comedians. It's not the idea of standing up on a stage, telling jokes to an intoxicated crowd that I fear. Telling jokes to drunk people is pretty typical fare for someone in politics. No, I truly do not envy the poor standup comic in Virginia that must climb up onto a stage and perform only to have his head in the thickest, most cough inducing cloud of smoke.

Several month's ago I visited the Richmond Funny Bone, a smoking restaurant/comedy club in Short Pump for a terrific performance by Bill Burr. Burr is a fantastic comedian and he knows how to engage his audience but unfortunately the entire front row of the audience practically smoke bombed him off the stage. His routine was interrupted numerous times by oppressive tobacco clouds that shimmered in the stage lights.

Burr is fortunate. Fortunate he makes enough money per performance that he may only need to endure one hour of this smoke bombing a day. He's fortunate in that many of his performances are in state's that ban smoking in restaurant establishments. But wait, there are unfortunately thousands of servers, cooks, and other restaurant staff that don't make thousands of dollars in an hour. These poor folks come in day after day and spend 8 to 12 hours serving patrons meals while breathing in noxious smoke. The Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine reports that food service workers have a 50% greater risk of dying from lung cancer than the rest of the population because of second hand smoke exposure.

Today Governor Tim Kaine and numerous members of the Virginia Senate and House of Delegates joined forces to introduce legislation and a massive push to ban smoking in dining establishments. More and more Virginians are working in the food service industries and the costs of providing healthcare to these individuals is soaring. The matter of banning smoking in restaurants is no longer one of personal freedoms, capitalistic choice; rather we are facing a public health crisis.

A statement from the Governor's office says:
The Virginia Department of Health estimates that secondhand smoke is responsible for 1,700 deaths per year. The Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids estimates that the Commonwealth spends $113 million a year on health care expenditures related to secondhand smoke exposure.

Last year conservative members killed this legislation and through some leap of logic suggested it would cause Philip Morris to take thousands of tobacco jobs out of Virginia. We are deep in a recession and lawmakers must act with an closer eye towards fiscal responsibility. $113 million a year of tax dollars is spent on health care related to second hand smoke exposure. If we could cut that number in half, we could put the taxpayer's money to far better use.

Virginians should be laughing at stand up comedians at comedy clubs and not coughing in the cloud of smoke. As long as second hand smoke invades our diners, cafes and clubs we should consider our public health regulation broke. And as long as our legislature puts partisan politics ahead of matters of public health we should regard them as they are, a bad joke.