After a night at the bar, I want to vomit. No, not because I sipped down too many fancy Cosmopolitans and drank myself into obliteration. It's because my hair, clothes and pores have been infested with the stale stench of cigarette smoke.

I get home, wash the night off me, and douse my designated bar jeans (hey, I don't want every pair reeking of smoke) with Febreze. Often my lungs hurt the next day, and even if they don't, I'm still fully aware that inhaling all the secondhand smoke from every smoker in the bar has been scientifically proven unhealthy.

I can't understand why Milwaukee still allows people to light up in bars and restaurants. The nationwide opposition to smoking bans comes primarily from smokers who feel it infringes on their personal freedoms and establishments who predict decreases in business as a result.

Are you kidding me? The bottom line is that the health effects which result from secondhand smoke are deadly.

If I go to a bar and don't smoke, I'm not endangering anyone's health, but if someone else in the bar is smoking then they are in fact endangering mine. When someone's rights causes someone else harm, it's unacceptable. In fact, secondhand smoke reaches so many patrons, that a ban unquestionably should be enforced.

It's time for Milwaukee to follow the smoking ban models of New York, Minneapolis and California, just to name a few locations. To date, 10 states plus at least an additional 10 cities in other states have implemented smoking bans, each varying in specific regulations. Recently, the city of Madison banned smoking in all workplaces.

If people have issues with prohibiting smoking in bars and restaurants, the situation is only going to intensify. Public buildings, workplaces, sporting venues and even some outdoor areas have already been prohibited in many states. On Marquette's campus you cannot smoke within 20 to 25 feet of a university building.

While a ban may initially cause establishments to see a decrease in business, other large cities have proven that bars, clubs and restaurants can and will stay open. Smokers won't have alternative places to go if every establishment is enforcing the same ban. Some may stop going out as frequently, but in contrast non-smokers will likely start going out more. I would love to wear my nicer clothes out to the bars and sit in a breathable atmosphere.

By taking away the temptation to smoke at bars and restaurants, the ban automatically discourages social smoking. It may also help promote and encourage smokers to finally quit a very difficult and addictive habit.

Wauwatosa, a Milwaukee suburb, has already banned smoking in restaurants. In early July, a Milwaukee proposal to ban smoking in workplaces, bars, restaurants and several public buildings was revealed. A similar ordinance is being debated in Chicago.

Smoking bans nationwide are inevitable. Major cities have already successfully integrated the policy. For now guess I have two choices: suffer through the secondhand nuisance or move to New York City.

This viewpoint was published in The Marquette Tribune on September 15, 2005.