- 2004: Ireland becomes the first country to ban smoking in the workplace. The following year, research discovered a 17% drop in respiratory issues throughout Ireland. SUCCESS!
- 2005: Italy banned smoking in all public places. Smoking rates dropped by about 4%, incidences of heart attacks decreased and cigarette sales dropped by 5.5%. SUCCESS!
- 2006: China made a move to reduce smoking for the Beijing Olympics. In 2011, a nationwide smoking ban in public places commenced. Reports found that 2012 smoking rates were 30% higher than in 1990. However, it is noted that more than one-third of the world’s smokers are Chinese. FAILURE!
- 2008: India banned smoking in the workplace with lawbreakers being charged a $4.50 fine. In 2013, reports claim that violations of the law are rampant. FAILURE!
- 2013: Russia banned smoking in most public venues and banned cigarette advertising from the streets. It’s too early to tell if the ban has been effective. The law is expected to reduce smoking by 15% by 2020. In fact, lawmakers in the country wanted to take it further by banning women under the age of 40 from smoking at all. That law did not pass. UNKNOWN.
Today, the United States does not have a nationwide smoking ban.
The smoking laws are left to state and local governments. However, that doesn’t
mean that the tobacco issue isn’t lying dormant at the federal level. In what public
health officials consider their “Bible,” Healthy People 2020, the government
has set forth 20 specific objectives to reduce the use of tobacco in the
nation. So far, it seems to be working.
According to the Healthy People 2020 document, the
proportion of smoking adults (ages 18 and older) dropped from 24% in 1997 to
18.2% in 2012. Furthermore, the percentage of youth smokers (grades 9-12) also
dropped from 43.4% in 1997 to 22.4% in 2012.
The news gets even better: both children and nonsmoking
adults who were exposed to second-hand smoke both dropped over the past five
years. In fact, the reduction in exposure dipped below the original targeted
numbers!
Also, the number of states with laws banning smoking in restaurants
and at worksites increased from 2 in 2002 to 34 in 2013. Furthermore, the
number of states banning smoking in bars went from 1 in 2002 to 28 in 2013. As of
2013, all but 14 states have banned smoking in at least one of three locations:
private workplaces, restaurants or bars. Those 14 states with no statewide ban are
California, Alaska, Texas, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia,
South Carolina, Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, and Connecticut and Missouri.
It is important to note that individual cities and communities may have smoking
bans.
In Pennsylvania, the Clean Indoor Air Act of 2008 prohibits smoking in only 1 location: public places or workplaces. The law does not prevent smoking in restaurants or bars – however, individual owners may have applied the law to their establishment. As you know, many of the restaurants and bars in Meadville are smoke-free – thanks to the health-mindedness of their owners. In addition, individual municipalities may have smoking bans. Check your local municipal laws for details on smoking bans.
So, do smoking bans help? Based on the numbers from the tobacco
use tracking in the United States – it sure does.
As a result, we are all just a little healthier thanks to cleaner air and cleaner lungs.
Works used for this article:
Balmforth, T. (2014). No smoking in Russia? Tough new
antitobacco rules come to the land of cigarettes. Retrieved from http://www.rferl.org/content/russia-new-antismoking-law-land-of-cigarettes/25438520.html
HealthyPeople.gov. (2015). Tobacco use. Retrieved from http://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topics-objectives/topic/tobacco-use/national-snapshot
Katz, A. (2013). Do national smoking bans actually work? Retrieved
from http://world.time.com/2013/06/03/do-national-smoking-bans-actually-work/
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