Will The Ban On Smoking In Maryland Lead To A Heartier Life?
The great state of Maryland… that would be where I reside. Well, we have now joined the likes of 20 other states across the US with a ban on smoking law that was made official last week by our Governor O’Malley. Don’t get me started on politics and our fearless leader, I won’t go there with you, but I am a fan of this law. Being a cardiac nurse, I applaud anything that aides in the cessation of cigarette smoking.
The law requires bars and restaurants, as well as private clubs such as American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars halls, to be smoke-free by Feb. 1. Some businesses eligible for financial hardship waivers from the state would get a three-year extension but must be smoke-free by 2011. With the law signed, tobacco shops are virtually the only public indoor places where smoking will be allowed in Maryland.
Am I worried that my job will be affected by a law that prohibits smoking in public places? Heck no. Do I think that it will be nicer to go out and eat at restaurants and pubs with my family? Yes! There will be none of the second hand smoke emanating from my clothes and my kid’s hair, and no embarrassing comments from my kids about, “They are smoking, do they know it is bad for them and it will KILL them”?
We all know about the risk of heart disease and smoking, I will not bore you with the numbers, but it will be interesting if someone does a second hand smoke study in a few years. After the ban has been in effect for some time.
“It’s no longer fashionable to be smoking,” House Speaker Michael E. Busch said after yesterday’s bill-signing ceremony, at which he and Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller joined O’Malley. “When I was growing up in the 1960s and 1970s, it was a different thing - you were strange if you didn’t smoke. But now there’s no longer a question about the carcinogenic effect of tobacco. Jurisdictions around the state were already starting to do it. States around the country were already doing it. The time had come.”
Do you think that this type of law infringes upon your rights? Do you welcome this, or see it as a hindrance? How do you feel it will affect cardiac disease in the near future, if at all?
via Baltimore Sun
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2 opinions for Will The Ban On Smoking In Maryland Lead To A Heartier Life?
Amélie
May 21, 2007 at 10:18 am
England is getting a smoking ban on 1 July as well (the last country in the British Isles, but it’s better than never!). I’m so glad I’ll be able to go to any restaurant or pub I like. Right now I only go to totally smokefree places, and there aren’t many of them. I used to go to places that had smoking and no-smoking sections, but I had too many bad experiences of being right next to a table of smokers, with absolutely no separation, and ending up sick. Once I went to a restaurant and asked for a no-smoking table, they removed the ashtray from our table but all the tables around allowed smoking! As if I was worried that *I* was going to smoke!
I think a ban is a kind of restriction, but one that is needed. It’s the same type as forbidding people from punching each other. It’s not socially acceptable to hurt or injure others in any way.
Lindsey
May 21, 2007 at 9:19 pm
Smoking is clearly a huge health concern. What is interesting to discuss is public policy regarding smoking and its effectiveness. How effective policies are depend, in part, on peoples’ responses to them. Our legislature in North Carolina recently voted down a proposal to ban smoking in public. We decided to conduct a survey to see how people felt about that. One thing we found is that, at least here in North Carolina, people more often see smoking as a nuisance than as a health problem. Surprisingly, 30% said they’d support a complete ban on all tobacco products and more than 60% support a public ban on smoking. Since North Carolina has a long history of tobacco farming, the responses become even more powerful. When we asked the same people to rank the greatest health threats, they put smoking last behind alcohol, drugs and obesity. Check it out on our blog if you’re interested. http://www.brogansurvey.blogspot.com. You can discover how the results broke down by age, race, gender and geography as well.
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