Brookline, a suburb 20 minutes outside of Boston, was the first in the state to implement a ban in the mid-1990s, and over 50 towns and communities have followed suit. This December, Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino signed a ban on smoking for restaurants throughout the city.

Eateries in California went smoke-free almost five years ago. Even New York City, known for its vibrant nightlife and bar scene, will have a ban in effect by the end of March.

“The thing we have to primarily take into concern is the science that concerns public health,” says Harold D. Cox, Cambridge’s chief public health officer, who has filed recommendations for the ban.

But the process in Cambridge is trickier than in other cities.

Elsewhere, a smoking ban has been handed down from a health commissioner and signed into law by a mayor, bypassing the need for a vote by a larger legislative body

But because Cambridge’s ban would, in effect, amend an earlier regulation from the city council, only the votes of five councillors could make smoking illegal in bars and restaurants.

The Case for a Ban

Director of University Health Services David S. Rosenthal ‘59, who works on the project Tobacco-Free Mass., says he wants Cambridge to be a leader in the statewide ban movement.

“Cambridge should have been way up front,” Rosenthal says. “I am disappointed that the city councillors haven’t seen that and are still caught up in the fact that they may be interfering with the economy.”

“People unknowingly—waiters, waitresses, as well as patrons—are being exposed to tobacco smoke,” Rosenthal says, adding that “those filters do not do the job.”

The councillors who support the ban say that it is an issue of protecting the restaurant workers.

“Why should you have to choose between your health and your job? You shouldn’t,” says Councillor Davis. “We protect workplace health elsewhere.”

Some claim that it is simply an irritant, and that out of common courtesy to non-smokers and the allergic, smoking in public should be prohibited.

Cambridge political pundit Robert Winters, who is a longtime supporter of the ban, says that some of his reasoning is personal.

“Part of it is just simple selfish reasons. I have friends in bands,” Winters says. “I’ve reached the point where I can’t even go to their shows anymore because I am hacking to death, and I feel miserable afterwards.”