Over Halfway to Victory on the Smokefree Air Challenge

In January 2006, the American Lung Association issued its Smokefree Air Challenge, calling on all states and localities to pass comprehensive legislation prohibiting smoking in all public places and workplaces. As of January 2, 2010, 26 states and the District of Columbia have met the Lung Association's challenge. Many more states have failed to take action, however. As a result, millions of Americans still are exposed to secondhand smoke, despite overwhelming evidence that it causes premature death and disease.

In 2009, three additional states met the Smokefree Air Challenge and brought the U.S. over the half-way point: Michigan, South Dakota and Wisconsin passed comprehensive laws protecting their citizens from exposure to secondhand smoke. They highlight the recent trend of states in the middle part of the country passing comprehensive smokefree laws.

Elected officials in North Carolina, which is headquarters to two major tobacco companies, showed tremendous political will in 2009 and demonstrated how much the state has changed. The legislature passed a bill prohibiting smoking in restaurants and bars. North Carolina's new law is not comprehensive, as it does not protect workers in other public places and workplaces from exposure to secondhand smoke.Yet it represents a major step forward.

For more information on which states have passed comprehensive smokefree laws, go to: www.stateoftobaccocontrol.org

It is important to note that the law also partially repeals statewide preemption, which will allow cities and towns to pass even stronger laws that will protect more North Carolinians.

Unfortunately, elected officials in neighboring Virginia missed a historic opportunity in 2009 to pass comprehensive legislation protecting workers and the public from secondhand smoke. In February, Governor Kaine signed into law a bill to restrict smoking with provisions that permit the continued exposure of workers and the general public to secondhand smoke, imperiling their health. The law carves out exemptions for private clubs and smoking rooms/areas in restaurants. These provisions also will make enforcement challenging and costly. Elected officials also failed to repeal preemption. As a result, Virginia cities and counties will continue to be prohibited from passing comprehensive laws fully protecting workers and citizens from secondhand smoke.

"Evidence from peer-reviewed studies shows that smoke-free policies and regulations do not have an adverse economic impact on the hospitality industry."
— 2006 Surgeon General's Report

Legislatures in Indiana, Kansas and Texas debated comprehensive smokefree air legislation, but elected officials ultimately lacked the political will to pass these bills. Iowa, Minnesota, Ohio and Oregon beat back attempts to weaken their comprehensive smokefree laws.

Defying extensive scientific evidence, opponents continue to spread the fiction that smokefree laws have a negative economic impact on restaurants and bars. This myth, perpetuated by the tobacco companies and their allies in state after state, has been repeatedly disproved through careful analysis of sales tax receipts, bar and restaurant licenses and other quantitative measures. It is especially critical in these troubled economic times that elected officials be aware of the evidence refuting these false economic impact claims. Elected officials must be well informed in order to ensure that comprehensive laws are not scuttled by factually inaccurate arguments.

There was mounting evidence in 2009 that smokefree laws improve the health of workers and the general public. A new report by the Institute of Medicine, Secondhand Smoke Exposure and Cardiovascular Effects: Making Sense of the Evidence, was released in October. This report confirmed that secondhand smoke is a cause of heart attacks. The report also concluded that there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke, and that even relatively brief exposure can cause a heart attack.6

 

6 IOM (Institute of Medicine). Secondhand Smoke Exposure and Cardiovascular Effects: Making Sense of the Evidence. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. 2009.