TUESDAY, May 28, 2002 (HealthDayNews) -- Delaware waiters soon won't have to ask, "Smoking or non-smoking?"
In six months, the entire state will be non-smoking. The little state's big step will give it the nation's toughest ban on indoor smoking, one that would end smoking in all public areas -- including bars, restaurants and casinos.
The Delaware General Assembly passed the bill earlier this month, and Gov. Ruth Ann Minner is expected to sign it this week; the law will then take effect 180 days later.
Minner spokesman Gregory Patterson says the governor supported the bill as part of an overall attack on Delaware's high cancer rate, which runs about 10 percent higher than the national average.
Delaware health officials say tobacco use is a factor in more than one-third of all cancer cases in the state.
Several other states already have smoking bans, including California, Colorado, Maryland and Utah, but most still allow smoking in bars.
California's law has been toughest -- so far. It banned smoking in bars, but made an exception for casinos located on Indian reservations. The Delaware ban provides no such exception.
Delaware smokers, who make up 23 percent of the total adult population, say they won't take the ban lying down.
"If I can't enjoy a cup of coffee with a cigarette, I won't go out to eat," says Mary T. Gaworski.
Debbie Brown, director of programs and advocacy for the American Lung Association of Delaware, says her group has received a wave of phone calls from similar advocacy groups following the bill's passage.
"This is actually a major step for tobacco control throughout the country," Brown says. "Delaware is being viewed as a model for other states to now follow. This is the most protective bill in the country."
The bill passed with little to no resistance. The Delaware State Chamber of Commerce took no position on it, and the Delaware Restaurant Association dropped its opposition the week before the bill passed.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has classified secondhand smoke as a Group A carcinogen, which means there's sufficient evidence that it causes cancer in humans, according to the American Cancer Society. The EPA has given the Group A designation to only 15 other pollutants, including asbestos, radon and benzene.
Each year, secondhand smoke in the United States is responsible for an estimated 35,000 to 40,000 deaths from heart disease in people who are not smokers. It's also to blame for about 3,000 lung cancer deaths in nonsmoking adults, and 150,000 to 300,000 lower respiratory tract infections in children younger than 18 months of age, the American Cancer Society says.
The 1986 Surgeon General's Report on The Health Consequences of Involuntary Smoking declared that secondhand smoke causes disease, including lung cancer, in healthy nonsmokers.
And when compared with the children of nonsmoking parents, children of parents who smoke have more frequent respiratory infections, more respiratory problems, and slower development of lung function as the lung matures.
The U.S. Surgeon General's report also found that separating smokers and nonsmokers within the same air space may reduce, but does not eliminate, the exposure to nonsmokers of secondhand smoke.
What To Do
To learn more about the hazards of secondhand smoke, visit the American Lung Association. For tips on how to quit smoking, check Quitsmokinigsupport.com.
