To her shock and dismay, Lynne Lohr entered the CTA’s el station and bus terminal at Higgins and Harlem one day in February and saw two uniformed bus drivers smoking cigarettes beneath a no smoking sign.
Lohr’s antipathy to cigarettes stems from illnesses she has suffered and seen. She has sinusitis, which is aggravated by cigarette smoke, and she’s been a chaplain at several local hospitals, where she’s watched smokers die of cancer and heart disease. “I saw the devastation that smoking can do,” she
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“Those drivers were under the very sign we came to photograph,” says Lohr. “I walked up to the drivers and said, “The sign says no smoking.’ One driver says to me, “So what.’ I had the camera strapped around my neck, and he says, “If you take my picture, I’ll break your camera.”‘
Lohr was positive they were breaking the city ordinance because she knew that the law, which prohibits smoking in “any streetcar, elevated train, or subway,” requires that at least half the seats in “all waiting areas of airport terminals, train stations and bus depots” be reserved for nonsmokers.
“Before the hearing I had a talk with the prosecutor, a young lawyer named [Dan] Madigan,” says Lohr. “He told me that he’ll try to prosecute but he doesn’t think it will work because the CTA has its own laws–as if Chicago’s laws don’t apply. I said, “What do you mean? I’ve seen the ordinance that outlaws smoking and it does apply.’ So he tells me that I don’t understand the nature of how this works and how many other major cases he had. I knew I was in trouble because he didn’t seem very interested in my case.”
Belcaster has not responded to her letter. But his chief spokesperson issued the following response when asked about the matter: “The CTA operates in what is essentially an outdoor environment. Smoking is not permitted inside our buses or trains and most riders adhere to those regulations. We understand this person’s [Lohr’s] concern but the focus of our security efforts is keeping crime off our system. We don’t believe our riders want to use our limited resources arresting smokers when more serious
“The EPA came out and said that secondhand smoke is a class A carcinogen, which means it’s a cancer-causing agent,” says Barbara Silvestri, director of tobacco programs and policy for the lung association. “These laws are there to protect the public health. We want them to be enforced.”
