To the editor:

As we celebrate the implementation of the Lawrence clean indoor air ordinance on July 1, it is notable that, on May 10, Tommy Thompson, secretary of Health and Human Services, made the United States the 131st signatory nation of an international treaty to control the detrimental effects of tobacco.

The World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control contains, in its Article 8, the following language: “Each party shall adopt and implement in areas of existing national jurisdiction as determined by natal law and actively promote at other jurisdictional levels the adoption and implementation of effective legislative, executive, administrative and/or other measures providing for protection from exposure to tobacco smoke in indoor workplaces, public transport, indoor public places and, as appropriate, other public places.”

To put it simply, it is now the stated policy and international pledge of the “conservative” Bush administration to support clean indoor air legislation. In this instance they are only slightly behind the “liberal” city of Lawrence.

Thank you, Lawrence, for once again being ahead of the curve, and for insuring your residents clean indoor air.

Dr. Steven Bruner,

Lawrence