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Kiss Your Ash Goodbye

Written By: David Snyder on Friday, August 31, 2007

The Right to Taste

When I was growing up, both of my parents smoked. A lot. Our living room was always filled with a thick haze. Our hair and clothes reeked of cigarettes regardless of how often they were washed. Even the snacks we ate while watching TV took on an ashy taste if they sat around too long. It was disgusting. And when we went out to eat, of course, the cigarettes came with us. There was just no escape. 

Back then, second hand smoke was not seen as the burning issue it is today. The accommodations restaurants made for its tobacco-free customers, such as designating a section of the restaurant to be non-smoking, were designed mainly to ease tensions between smokers and non-smokers, not to protect employees and customers from the harmful effects of second hand smoke. 

Times have changed. Legislatures all across the country are passing laws to ban smoking in restaurants. But not everyone is breathing easy. Many smokers are fuming, of course. Some people dispute the scientific basis for the bans. Some restaurant owners complain that the bans will drive customers away and hurt their businesses. And Libertarians argue that the government should let the restaurants decide for themselves whether to ban smoking. 

These arguments, though, are merely puffery. Scientific studies have shown that those who are exposed to second hand smoke have an increased risk of lung cancer. Other studies have shown that bars and restaurants are thriving amid the smoking bans. And most people would agree that a law that protects people’s health, safety, and welfare is a tolerable intrusion.

For foodies and wine lovers, though, there is another benefit to snuffing out smoking in restaurants: The freedom to taste. We do not, after all, taste with our tongues. We taste, rather, with our noses—specifically, the olfactory gland in our nasal cavity.

Smoke deadens our sense of smell and, consequently, interferes with our ability to taste. Food and wine, therefore, taste better in a non-smoking environment.
To be blunt, dining out isn’t cheap these days, and when we decide to treat ourselves to a good meal and a glass of wine, we should have the right to actually taste them. 

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