The right to make personal choices means, in theory, having the right to do what we please, when and where we please, so long as it doesn't violate the rights of others. "You say toe-may-toe, I say toe-mah-toe" is all well and good, but as of July 1, Local Law 7-1997 draws the line on your right to smoke near me while I'm eating my "toe-mah-to" in a restaurant in Nassau County.

When one person's exercise of their freedom of choice lacks a physical boundary that prevents its intrusion into another's personal space, as is the case with smoking, we face the question of whose rights prevail. It is a fact that cigarette smokers' byproduct, known as second-hand or environmental tobacco smoke ("ETS"), permeates the environment as well as the lungs of those in its path, without discrimination or conscience.

And now, much more serious than the lingering taste and odor of second-hand smoke in food, hair, clothes and belongings, is the potentially steep price tag it carries: the added risk of cancer to those who breathe it. Mounting scientific evidence supports claims that ETS is a class A carcinogen. There is so much we don't yet know about preventing cancer. Why ignore this red flag?

We therefore ask, how much freedom must we grant to those who thoughtlessly, or worse, defiantly, would impose on others their choice to smoke in public and its consequences?

The answer may now lie in Local Law 7-1997, the county legislature's strongest attempt to date to regulate the rights of smokers in favor of those who exercise their own right to eschew the habit.

What is difficult to comprehend is why smokers insist on their right to smoke in public, when they know there is no way to completely halt the drift or absorption of their tobacco smoke, short of creating an "artificial brake" in the form of an expensive filtering or ventilation system. Not coincidentally, such terms are set forth in Local Law 7-1997 for the creation of a "smoking room" in restaurants with over 50 seats, in order to allow smokers to puff away in otherwise unrestricted peace during their meal.

This brings back a long-ago memory of traveling cross-country by airplane with two young children. All "non-smoking section" seats were taken, so the airline placed our family in the first row of "smoking" with the promise that we would be acceptably smoke-free all the way to LAX. Not! The drift of smoke from immediately behind us was overwhelming. We loudly applauded the advent of totally non-smoking air travel and now, of Local Law 7-1997.

For The Record, we implore our local restaurant owners to obey the law, to its full extent and intention. There is much more at stake here than just filling a seat, selling a meal, getting repeat customers. The health of all of Great Neck's dining patrons is on the table now. Protecting them from second-hand smoke is your job, and it's the law.

Bonnie D. Graham