Missing real issue

Dear editor:
Having read the numerous letters to the editor over the past year or two concerning the impending smoking ban for businesses, it seems to me that most people have either missed or lost sight of the real issue.
This is not about my rights as a customer to a smoke-free environment or the rights of a smoker to light up, or the power of a health worker. This is purely and simply about a worker’s right to a safe and hazardous free workplace.
If I, as a patron, do not like the smoke, I can get up and leave. No problem. But an employee often does not have that same luxury. He/she must work there to survive. To say that he/she can merely quit that job and find other comparable employment is an over simplification and improbable, at best, in today’s economy.
If I was employed at a business that allowed any kind of toxic fumes to be circulated in my workplace, I’d want something done about that threat to my health. To deny that second-hand smoke is hazardous to your health is to circumvent the facts.
Dr. Sarsfield may, in fact, be alone in this crusade and may appear to be on an ego trip, but I believe that his fundamental premise is sound. He is doing what his job mandates him to do—and he really does have workers’ rights as his primary focus.
Sincerely yours,
Rick Wiedenhoeft
Fort Frances, Ont.