More and more places are banning smoking in public places. Twenty-eight states and territories in the United States have some sort of smoking ban in effect, but a recent report from the American Lung Association says that most states just aren’t spending enough money on smoking prevention and cessation programs.
The American Lung Association’s “State of Tobacco Control Report Card” was released at the beginning of January. The report agrees that yes — banning smoking, putting high taxes on cigarettes, and offering tobacco prevention programs does work. However, they feel that the political will to make it all happen is lacking.
The American Lung Association report also points out that the annual costs of health care and lost productivity as a result of smoking or tobacco use are estimated at $167 billion nationwide.
In 2006, nine states chose to strengthen laws on smoke-free areas. The current tally across the country is thirteen smoke free states — California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, Washington, Vermont — and one smoke free District of Columbia. Arizona will join the ranks of the smoke-free in May 2007. Partial smoking bans are in place in Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Maryland, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Utah. U.S. territories Guam and Puerto Rico also have smoking bans in place; Guam currently prohibits smoking in restaurants and Puerto Rico has a ban on smoking in all public places.
The American Lung Association report graded the fifty states on smoke-free air, cigarette taxes (which are considered part of the prevention effort), prevention program funding, and restrictions on youth access to tobacco. Only one state got an A in all four categories: Maine, showing straight As for their second year in a row. Thirty-four states received failing grades on funding tobacco prevention and smoking cessation programs, and twenty-three states didn’t make the grade on smoking laws.
However, the American Lung Association gave the federal government a whopping F for the year for their lack of action in curbing tobacco use. This is thanks in part to Congress not passing a bill that would give the U.S. Food and Drug Administration the power to regulate tobacco.
Across the Atlantic, the European Union is considering a total smoking ban in public places for all twenty-seven member countries. Currently, thirteen E.U. nations are working on laws to restrict public smoking, but the idea of bans is meeting strong opposition in others.