by Hank Cox

About the author: Hank Cox is a contributor to Insight on the News, a weekly newsmagazine, and works for the Washington, D.C., Chamber of Commerce.

In February 1995, Cindy Gilmer flew from Starkville, Miss., to the nation’s capital to testify before the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The experience, she said later, was a “real eye-opener.”

Gilmer owns and operates a billiards hall, the sort of establishment in which smoking is de rigueur. OSHA wants to outlaw smoking in the workplace, including restaurants and pool rooms. “You can’t just throw a blanket over business and treat us all the same,” says Gilmer. “A lot of us do not need, and certainly cannot afford, to spend $10,000 on a separate smoking room. It just doesn&rsquo...