Smoking bans spreading, but some states still love smokers

By: David W Freeman
Topics: News ,; Addiction

Passive smoking concerns may lead every U.S. state to implement a comprehensive indoor smoking ban by 2020, according to the CDC.

(Credit: istockphoto)

(CBS/AP) For smokers who like to light up in bars and restaurants and on the job, the clock is ticking. By 2020, the CDC predicted Thursday, every state in the nation may ban indoor smoking in public places.

And that has smokers' rights activists fuming.

PICTURES: 9 worst states for nonsmokers

Gary Nolan, director of the pro-smoking rights organization Smoker's Club, said he wouldn't be surprised if the prediction came true. Public health officials and others have been putting tremendous pressure on bars and businesses to bar smoking, he added.

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

But Dr. Tim McAfee, director of the CDC's Office on Smoking and Health, is bullish about the spread of smoking bans.

"It is by no means a foregone conclusion that we'll get there by 2020," he said. But the success of the smoking ban movement has been astounding, and seems to be accelerating, he added. "I'm relatively bullish we'll at least get close to that number."

In 2000, no states had comprehensive indoor smoking bans. In 2010, 26 states did.

Nearly half of Americans are now covered by state or local indoor smoking bans, according to a new CDC report. Another 10 states have laws than ban smoking in workplaces, bans or restaurants, but not in all three venues.

Some other states have less restrictive laws, like requiring smoking areas with separate ventilation.

Only seven states have no indoor smoking restrictions, although some of their cities do: Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, West Virginia and Wyoming.

Tobacco smoke causes lung cancer, heart disease and other often-deadly maladies, and smoking has been called one of the nation's leading causes of death.

So the choice for health policy makers seems to be a clear one: liberty or death.

10 Photos

Nine worst states for nonsmokers

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by afmcalax April 25, 2011 9:14 AM EDT: The bottom line is that anyone smoking in 2011 is an idiot. You have allowed yourself to become addicted to a tobacco stick that will either kill you or impare your health. Those are the facts. That smokers seem to believe they have the right to impose their large health care costs on all Americans because of a totally unnecessary habit is astounding. That these same smokers seem to believe that they can then affect non-smokers health with their voluntary bad habit is equally astounding. Tobacco companies are sponsoring these "right to smoke" crazies as this will negatively affect their large incomes they enjoy by killing their customers and stiocking society with the clean up costs.; Reply to this comment


by atfield April 25, 2011 3:27 AM EDT: It is quiet interesting looking from the outside in at your comments, very similar to what our's were in the early stages of regulation. Nobody can smoke in trains, planes, busses or automobiles with kids aboard, not within any public building and not within 15ft of the access to that building. Not at the beaches or parks or anything owned by the Government and it's working fine. Three years ago I smoked 50 cigarettes a day, now I smoke none and save $30+ a day = lots of money over time.

Don't be so negative [scared] you blokes, kicking the habit is hard [trust me I know] Convince yourself to do it and you will be amazed as to how much support you will get. Put that money aside daily and spend it on yourself when it adds up.

In one year you will be able to afford to bring your partner and kids to visit us down here in Australia -- go for it; Reply to this comment


by bobc1493 April 24, 2011 2:59 PM EDT: GOVERNMENT... GET OUT OF OUR LIVES...PERIOD!!!!!!!; Reply to this comment


by bobc1493 April 24, 2011 2:36 PM EDT: GOVERNMENT... GET OUT OF OUR LIVES...PERIOD!!!!!!!; Reply to this comment


by GreenGestalt April 23, 2011 7:58 PM EDT: I don't smoke, drink, use drugs in any excess / illegality...

And I'm SICK of all these laws encroaching on our freedoms. I don't care if others use drugs, drink, etc. Well, avoid driving while plastered, but even those laws are stupid. They pretended their hands were tied to get DUI laws through, now there are more drunks than ever driving, the police do a FINE job pretending to stop them, when they "Catch and Release" until they finally kill someone.

IMO, these laws must be resisted and repealed.; Reply to this comment


by jgg000101 April 22, 2011 3:29 PM EDT: the tax revenue generated by smokers is addictive.; Reply to this comment

by davidd5063 April 22, 2011 1:33 PM EDT

No state bans smoking in PRIVATE, NOT-FOR-PROFIT CLUBS. If non-smokers demand segregation, I'm all for segregating the self-rightous from the "fallible" rest.

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by afmcalax April 25, 2011 9:22 AM EDT: I think you gullible, self-addicted smokers should then start and fund your private "smoker clubs." Of course the fact that your members would continue to die from their voluntary bad habit would impact its ability to be profitable over time. As smokers decrease as a percentage of the population, it would make it hard to be profitable with an ever shrinking clientele base. The workers would have to be smokers also so that non-smokers would not be affected by the customer's bad habits. We spend billions to keep illegal drugs out of the country, but the largest addictive drug is tobacco and society still has its defenders. Illogical and hypocritical.