What States have smoking bans?
Though 20.6% of Americans still smoke, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), anyone following the tobacco industry knows that, overall, cigarette manufacturers are hurting. Until 2008, when the economy took a turn for the worse, smoking rates were declining each year. Stress-induced smoking brought those numbers up again slightly, but revenue has remained steady since 2005 at about $46.9 billion. While that news is pretty good, nearly $46.9 billion is still a lot of jack. And with 30% of people below the poverty line smoking, according to the CDC, smoking cessation efforts are still essential. Next: Fast Food Growth Slows SPECIAL REPORT: See Healthland's Full Guide to Life in 2011
Half of all states and the District of Columbia now have comprehensive bans on smoking in restaurants, bars and the workplace, federal officials said Thursday — an extraordinary pace of progress, considering that just over a decade ago, no state had enacted such a ban.
If the adoption of smoking bans continues at the current rate, it’s possible that nearly all 50 states may have laws in place by 2020. “It is by no means a foregone conclusion that we’ll get there by 2020, ” said Dr. Tim McAfee, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Office on Smoking and Health, according to the AP. “I’m relatively bullish we’ll at least get close to that number.”
In 2002, Delaware became the first state in the nation to ban smoking in all three venues — bars, restaurants and private workplaces — followed soon thereafter by New York (2003), Massachusetts (2004), and Rhode Island and Washington (2005). Starting in 2006, the trend gained momentum, with 20 more states enacting comprehensive smoking bans by 2010.
(More on Time.com: NYC Bans Smoking in Parks, Beaches and Pedestrian Plazas)
Ten other states currently have laws banning smoking in one or two, but not all three venues. Eight states have less restrictive indoor smoking laws, allowing smoking in designated and separately ventilated areas, for instance.
Notably, seven states still have no statewide restrictions on indoor smoking. And none of the states with comprehensive bans are in the South.
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