COLUMBUS – With more than half of Ohioans, and Americans in several states, faced with life under orders to wear facial coverings in public, many are asking if governments have the right to make such demands.
The main argument typically made against mask requirement is that they violate individual liberties but two Ohio State University sociology professors and a colleague from Purdue have written an article that argues that mask rules for public places like retail stores and restaurants are very similar to smoking bans.
Writing in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, the professors say mask requirements to stop the spread of COVID-19 should be considered “fundamental occupational health protections” for workers at stores, restaurants and other public places.
“Both tobacco smoke and COVID-19 are air-based health hazards to workers who may be exposed to them for hours on end,” said Michael Vuolo, co-author of the paper and associate professor of sociology at OSU.
Even the strictest individual liberty philosophies still recognize that those liberties only go to the point of harm against others, he said.
Smoking bans were controversial when they were first implemented but are hardly mentioned now, Vuolo said.
Many business owners enforce smoking bans even when not required by law because research has shown that workplace productivity is higher in workplaces that are seen as healthy and safe, Vuolo said.
Vuolo, who researches the effectiveness of smoking bans, wrote the article with Vincent Roscigno, an OSU sociology professor who is an expert on labor and worker rights, and Brian Kelly, a professor of sociology at Purdue University who is an expert on health policy.