More than a year ago, when the smoking ban was passed in Washington, I had mixed feelings. As a nonsmoker, I was first a proponent of the ban, I was tired of sitting in restaurants inhaling second-hand, cancer-causing, smoke. But I also realized the ban made things much more difficult for smokers and pushed smoking onto the streets and sidewalks where it still affected nonsmokers.

Today, I am unsure passing the smoking ban in Washington was the right choice. I would not be so unsure if Washington took the steps New York City has recently taken in banning the use of trans fats in all restaurants.

The New York City Board of Health voted last week to ban the use of artificial trans fats by restaurateurs in the hopes of promoting healthier eating. This is a problem for restaurants as well as people who oppose restrictions on their rights. I am in favor of helping those in need, but a ban on certain foods seems ridiculous.

Trans fats are often used in frying and cooking pie crusts, doughnuts and other baked goods. Trans fats have been proven to be unhealthy; they lower good cholesterol and raise bad cholesterol, but are also delicious and economical. They can be a cause of heart attacks or strokes, but so can numerous other things. Many people eat trans fats and are healthy; trans fats do not alone cause death – an unhealthy lifestyle causes death – if this were not true, they would not be approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

There are many reasons I disagree with this recent prohibition of trans fats. The most important of these can be shown through a comparison with last year’s smoking ban in Washington. The smoking ban was primarily put in place to protect nonsmokers. This is not so in the case of the trans fat ban in New York City. According to a Dec. 6 article in the Los Angeles Times, the new act was “driven by an activist health commissioner, Thomas Frieden.” Frieden is trying to help the people of New York City in a time when obesity is a major problem, but by taking away people’s choices, he is hurting his city.

I want to be free to eat what I chose; if something tastes good, I am likely going to eat it. But I am not going to eat trans fats every day because they are unhealthy. If people want to be unhealthy, that is their choice. There are no second-hand effects of trans fats, so they should not be banned. People need to take responsibility for their own health instead of being forced into it.

A much better alternative to the ban would be a measure requiring dietary information to be posted in restaurants and on menus. A national requirement that began this past January already requires companies to list artificial trans-fat content on food labels.

This ban will likely have negative effects on small businesses in New York. In the L.A. Times article, restaurant representatives said they were not happy with the ban. Chuck Hunt, executive vice president of the New York State Restaurant Association, said the ban might force restaurant owners to raise prices or even go out of business.

“The places that are going to be hurt are the small places, the mom-and-pop restaurant[s] ...,” Hunt told the L.A. Times.

Because restaurants have only 18 months to comply, many restaurants may shift to using oils high in saturated fat, which also poses health risks, Sue Hensley, a spokeswoman for the National Restaurant Association, told the Times.

Laws limiting the use of trans fats already took effect in Denmark in 2003 and in the town of Tiburon, Calif. – a law that was followed by a lawsuit a year later.

“The next city to ban trans fats could be L.A., could be Seattle, could be Miami, could be Chicago,” Stephen Joseph, an attorney who spearheaded the Tiburon effort, told the Times.

According to a Dec. 6 article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, “[Seattle] Mayor Greg Nickels sent a letter to the [King County] Board of Health earlier this year asking to board to look into trans fat and options.” WSU dining facilities have been trans fat-free since December 2005, according to a Jan. 6 WSU news release. But students may still find trans fats in restaurants off campus.

Trans fats can be unhealthy, but so can a myriad of other things. Outlawing them in restaurants will not solve the problem. Many people will be angry with the decision, and as long as the additive is listed as acceptable by the Food and Drug Administration, it should be accessible.