Half of US states now have strict anti-smoking laws while nationwide ban is on track for 2020

Half of the states in the U.S. have banned smoking in restaurants, bars and the workplace since 2000, and federal health officials have predicted that cigarette smoking will be forbidden in all U.S. states by 2020.

In a new report, the CDC estimates that roughly 47.8 per cent of residents are now covered by comprehensive state or local indoor smoking bans.

Still, an estimated 88 million people age 3 or older are still exposed to second hand smoke, according to the office’s report.

‘It is by no means a foregone conclusion that we'll get there by 2020,’ said Dr. Tim McAfee, director of the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Office on Smoking and Health, in reference to the goal of a ban in 50 states.

Still he maintains that he is ‘relatively bullish we'll at least get close to that number.’

At this point only seven states still have no state-wide indoor smoking restrictions whatsoever, including: Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, West Virginia and Wyoming. But certain cities in these states have already adopted anti-smoking measures in public places.

Gary Nolan of the Smoker's Club, a smoker’s rights association, sees the nationwide banning of smoking as an inevitable chipping away at human rights.

‘It wouldn't surprise me if they prevailed. It's just a little bit more liberty slipping away at the hands of big government,’ Nolan said.

Delaware pioneered the banning of smoking in bars, restaurants and private workplaces in 2002, and several states soon followed suit, including New York in 2003 and Massachusetts in 2004.

Rhode Island and Washington followed in 2006, and over the next four years 20 more states, along with the District of Columbia, followed the trend.

Studies proved that bans in restaurants, bars and businesses improved air quality of air and reduced exposure to second hand smoke.

Smokers are also more likely to quit the habit in areas where the bans are in effect, while there is a potential reduction in heart attack rates in adults and rates of asthma attacks amongst children.

‘All states that have not done so already could protect the health of their residents by adopting laws that prohibit smoking in workplaces, restaurants and bars,’ the CDC report advises.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer of the World Health Organization released a study in 2002 that proved that non-smokers are exposed to the same carcinogens by tobacco smoke as active smokers.

Second hand smoke contains 69 known carcinogens, according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer, and radioactive decay products, according to a study revealed in Public Health Report.

The CDC’s report concludes that although smoking bans have put the health of Americans at less risk than in 2000, further action could be made to improve the health of non-smokers.

The report indicated that casino workers are routinely exposed to second-hand smoke, and those who live in apartments adjacent to heavy smokers are exposed.

A University of Rochester study found that up to 99% of children living in apartment buildings had a tobacco by-product in their blood, likely from second-hand smoke exposure.

source: www.dailymail.co.uk