By Katherine Steinberg
Should you be able to regulate your neighbor's smoking habit? Some New Yorkers think so.
Smoke Free States Card
- Smoke Free States Card
Find out which state has the highest cigarette tax and the strongest smoking prevention laws and regulations. The American Lung Association's annual State of Tobacco Control Report tracks progress on key tobacco control policies at the state and federal levels.
- Smoke Free States Card
Washington: The payoffs of Washington's Tobacco Prevention Program, implemented in 2000, are beginning to show in deterring young smokers. Youth smoking is at an all-time low and significantly better than the national average. Washington was also among the first states to pass comprehensive smoke-free laws in 2005.
- Smoke Free States Card
Rhode Island: Increasing cigarette tax can help deter smokers, according to the ALA. For every 10 percent price increase per pack, there is a 4 to 7 percent drop in cigarette consumption. Rhode Island earned an A for a cigarette tax at $2.46 -- the highest in all of New England. It also marked high with smoke-free air initiatives and recently passed legislation requiring cigarettes to self-extinguish when not being smoked in efforts to prevent fire. But the state didn't quite make straight A's and failed on tobacco prevention and spending.
- Smoke Free States Card
Wyoming: The Cowboy State's best grade for spending state dollars on tobacco prevention and control but the grades went downhill from there. For good reason, it received an F for smoke-free air. According to the report, there are no provisions for smoking in restaurants, childcare facilities, schools or even retail stores. Wyoming's only smoke-free regulation restricts smoking at government work sites.
- Smoke Free States Card
Maine: In 2007, Maine was the first state to pass legislation banning the sale of flavored cigarettes and cigars -- to be in effect July 2009. Maine also scored high as a smoke-free air state and has the distinction of the State of Tobacco Control 2007'shighest grades.
- Smoke Free States Card
Tennessee: With economic costs due to smoking topping over $4.2 million and a state-wide high school smoking rate at over 25 percent, Tennessee is still very much attached to its tobacco-growing roots. However, 2007 was a landmark year for change, one being a cigarette tax increase from $0.20 to $0.62, the second highest tax among traditional tobacco-growing states. Another advance for Tennessee was its Non-Smoker Protection Act, a law that aims to protect citizens from second-hand smoke risks at work. But with no legislation banning smoking in bars or restaurants, many in the food and hospitality industries are still at risk for illnesses caused by secondhand smoke.
- Smoke Free States Card
New Jersey: Would you buy a pack of cigarettes with an added $2.575 tax? That's what you'd have to pay in New Jersey, the state with the highest cigarette tax in the nation. Half of the states have a tax at $1.00 or higher and nine states have a tax of $2.00 or higher.
- Smoke Free States Card
Illinois: Along with Maryland, Minnesota, New Mexico and New Hampshire, the state strengthened its smoke-free air laws in 2007. As of 2008, Illinois bans smoking in all public and work places. However, it received a D for its cigarette tax at $0.98 and for its laws regulating youth access to cigarettes -- about 8.8 percent of Illinois middle school students smoke. Clearly, there's still room for improvement.
- Smoke Free States Card
Hawaii: With strong smoke-free air laws that ban smoking in public facilities such as restaurants, bars, retail stores and around schools and the workplace, Hawaii is among the states with the highest report cards. The islands also increased funding fortobacco control programs to 11.4 million in FY 2008 -- the first state to budget above the Center for Disease Control's minimum recommended level.
- Smoke Free States Card
South Carolina: At $0.07 per pack, South Carolina's cigarette tax is the lowest in the nation. Failing across the board, no one should be rushing to hang the southern state's report card on the fridge. South Carolina needs to improve across the board inprotecting citizens from smoke-related health problems.
Smokers are being increasingly pushed to the wayside as bans on smoking sweep across cities from the West to the East coasts, from the work place to restaurants. It seems there is no place to light up indoors anymore. But when does the ban on public smoking become private?
Two neighbors are feuding in New York over secondhand smoke seeping into a public hallway, as reported in the New York Times. One neighbor is a 57-year-old chain-smoking restaurateur who says she has been a smoker for four decades. She admits to feeling guilty over not being able to quit, and claims she uses air purifiers and door seals to ward against smoke seepage. Her neighbors, a couple, both 40 and lawyers, claim her efforts are not stopping the smoke fumes from infecting the hallway where their young son is exposed to her secondhand smoke. But do they have the right to restrict her smoking in her own apartment?
The well-documented dangers of secondhand smoke are many, ranging from lung cancer to heart disease, and possibly many other cancers, such as breast and cervical cancer. Secondhand smoke exposure has been concluded to be unsafe at any level, according to a June 2006 report by the U.S. Surgeon General. The report went further, stating there must be a ban on indoor smoking entirely in order to fully protect nonsmokers.
But, should your own apartment be considered a smoke-free zone, simply because it's indoors? Perhaps, if that apartment has a shared hallway where smoke can collect. What this means to smokers in their own apartments is still up for debate. Home may not be a sanctuary for smokers much longer.
