Overview
State Tobacco Control Policy
The state report looks at four areas: Smokefree Air, Tobacco Prevention and Control Funding, Cigarette Taxes, and Youth Access. Below are the key findings by program area.
Smokefree Air
Health Impact
Cigarettes don't just harm the people who smoke—they also harm the people around them. In June 2006, the U.S. Surgeon General released a landmark report, declaring that there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke. The report concluded that millions of people in the United States are still exposed to secondhand smoke in their workplaces and homes and found that simply separating smokers from nonsmokers and ventilating buildings does not eliminate exposure to secondhand smoke.
This warning from the nation’s top public health official underscores the need for comprehensive laws to protect everyone from the dangers of secondhand smoke. In the preface to his report, the Surgeon General wrote: "Nonsmokers need protection through the restriction of smoking in public places and workplaces?"18
Exposure to secondhand smoke causes approximately 46,000 heart disease deaths and 3,400 lung cancer deaths among nonsmokers every year.19 A 2004 study in the British Medical Journal found that secondhand smoke increased the risk of heart disease in nonsmokers by as much as 60 percent.20 The danger from heart disease is so severe that the CDC has issued a warning to people at risk for coronary heart disease to avoid exposure to secondhand smoke.21
Secondhand smoke is especially harmful to young children because they breathe in more air than adults and their bodies are still developing. Babies and toddlers are at increased risk—secondhand smoke can contribute to the development of pneumonia, ear infections, bronchitis, coughing, wheezing and increased mucus production in healthy children under 18 months of age.22 Exposure to secondhand smoke—both in utero and after birth—increases the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).23 Children with asthma are prone to more frequent and severe attacks when exposed to secondhand smoke. The California Environmental Protection Agency has estimated that exposure to secondhand smoke triggers 202,300 asthma attacks in children who have asthma.24
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"The debate is over. The science is clear. Secondhand smoke is not a mere annoyance but a serious health hazard."
—U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona. 35
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Who Is At Risk?
Progress has been made in educating parents about the dangers of secondhand smoke. The number of youths exposed to secondhand smoke in the home declined by 40 percent between 1999 and 2003.25 Despite the decline, an estimated 22 million children aged 3-11 years and 18 million youths aged 12-19 years were exposed to secondhand smoke in the United States in 2000.26 A 2005 CDC study found that the levels of cotinine, a chemical marker for secondhand smoke exposure, in children have dropped significantly over the past decade. However, children’s cotinine levels are still more than twice that of adults.27
Among adult nonsmokers, the most common place to be exposed to secondhand smoke is in the workplace.28 Food service workers are the least likely group to be covered by smokefree policies. Only 43 percent of food service workers (28% of waiters and 13% of bartenders) are covered by smokefree workplace policies, compared to 76 percent of white-collar workers.29 Levels of secondhand smoke in restaurants and bars are approximately 1.6 times greater and 7.6 times greater, respectively, than in office workplaces.30 Food service workers have a 50 percent greater risk of dying from lung cancer than the general population.31 However, at the end of 2006, 10 states still had no restrictions on smoking in private worksites, restaurants and bars.32
According to National Cancer Institute (NCI) data, people of color have higher rates of occupational exposure to secondhand smoke; Latinos and Native Americans have the highest rates.33 These high rates stem in part from the fact that people of color are disproportionately employed in food service, manual labor and factory jobs, where rates of exposure to secondhand smoke are highest.34
Overview continued... |
