Biophysicist James Repace's study deserves a thorough airing before Cincinnati Health Department's advisory task force that has been asked to study the effects of a stringent ban on smoking in public places. Members should not let themselves be diverted from extending workplace protection to hospitality workers.

Repace's research appears in the September Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. He measured air quality in six bars, a casino and a pool hall before and after Delaware's 2002 Clean Indoor Air Act. All venues were heavily polluted, averaging 20 times outdoor air pollution. After the law took effect, air quality readings for the bars and casino were indistinguishable from outdoors.

Repace concludes Delaware's law has "significantly reduced the risk of cancer, heart disease, stroke and respiratory disease among workers and patrons in its hospitality industry."

Secondhand-smoke studies continue to pile up irrefutable evidence of disease and death from exposure to other people's smoking.

Repace's study measured airborne particulate matter and cancer-causing particulate hydrocarbons, the two most damaging categories of toxins in tobacco smoke. Repace - a senior researcher for such agencies as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration - and other experts don't buy the usual fixes proposed by the hospitality industry.

He not only found ventilation systems operating way below the industry standard, but warned they can't exchange air fast enough. He told New York lawmakers earlier this year that for a bar to cut the air contaminants from cigarettes to safe levels, it would need a machine "comparable to a tornado."

After Delaware went smoke-free, researchers found nonsmokers and smokers showed improved lung function and other health gains, and statewide smoking rates dropped 11 percent in just one year.

It appears a little equal protection for workers goes a long way.