The policy just stunk.

We are breathing easier now that the city of Wasilla’s double standard for smoking has been snuffed out.

Under rules changed by council Monday night in a 4-1 vote, city employees, including the police, could smoke in their city-owned vehicles if that vehicle was assigned to that employee. If the vehicle was shared, no smoking was allowed. In Wasilla City Hall, smoking is banned. Period. Not banned if you don’t have your own office. Banned.

It was time to stamp out the smokes everywhere to be fair and to be healthy.

City Councilman Steve Menard, who sponsored the change, cited the smell, the inconsistency and the loss of resale value in the vehicles as reasons. To those we add the health issues associated with smoking and second-hand smoke.

A fellow city employee riding in a smoker’s assigned car shouldn’t have to endure the imbedded stench of cigarettes as he or she travels, even if the driver is courteous enough not to light up. A crime or accident victim taking shelter in a police car shouldn’t have to choose between the elements and second-hand smoke, a known carcinogen. Even a perpetrator shouldn’t be unwillingly subjected to inhaling tobacco fumes.

It isn’t unfair or unreasonable to expect those who use city-owned vehicles to not smoke in them. Like their counterparts who work at Wasilla City Hall, they can coordinate appropriate breaks during the workday to smoke in an appropriate place. Besides the health issues and how repeated exposure to second-hand smoke affects the value of those vehicles, sitting behind the wheel of a city vehicle with a cigarette hanging from one’s lips reflects poorly on the city.

It just wasn’t right for the city to do anything that condones smoking. According to the American Lung Association, smoking costs the United States an average of $3,702 annually per adult smoker in health-care costs, including mortality-related productivity loses and direct medical expenditures.

The list of health problems related to smoking is long and oft-cited. By letting its employees with assigned vehicles smoke on the job, the city opened the car door to more lost time due to medical problems and other related costs.

The whole notion of “it doesn’t hurt anybody else,” a familiar mantra of smokers, has been debunked with the known effects of second-hand smoke and the costs to society incurred because of smokers.

It was time to kick some butts in Wasilla, and we’re glad the council did some butt kicking, even if it was just tobacco.