Green lawmaker recants story he told on secondhand smoke

BIDDEFORD – A lawmaker who made an impassioned plea for the smoking ban in bars and pool halls says the story he told of a man who came down with cancer after breathing secondhand smoke was not accurate.

Rep. John Eder said a trusted constituent related to him the story of Charles Greer, an Old Orchard Beach teacher who did not smoke but breathed secondhand smoke while moonlighting for 20 years in a Portland tavern.

The Legislature’s only Green Independent Party member cited Greer’s story during the floor debate. Some say the story helped silence critics of banning smoking in bars and pool halls, which goes into effect on Jan. 1.

In the end, the story was not correct: Greer smoked for most of his life, according to family and friends. “He smoked for years and had quit five or six years before he died,” Thomas Greer, Charles’ brother, said. “His comment to me was that he quit smoking, but not soon enough.”

“We all smoked,” said Kathleen Donnellon of Hollis, who taught alongside Greer, “and we smoked like chimneys.”

Eder, who is from Portland, said he learned after the fact that his story was not entirely accurate. But he doesn’t believe lawmakers were misled or that he significantly altered the outcome of the smoking ban vote.

He said that while the specifics about the beloved high school teacher may have been inaccurate, his comments speak to a larger truth about the dangers of secondhand smoke.

“It doesn’t change my view that environmental smoke in the workplace, after 15 years of exposure, can cause someone to come down with lung cancer,” he said.