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CDC predicts smoking bans in every state by 2020
Apr 21, 2011 | 1346 views | 12 12 comments | 8 8 recommendations | email to a friend | print
ATLANTA (AP) — US health officials predict that by 2020, the entire nation could be covered by smoking bans in workplaces, bars and restaurants.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that's a possibility, if state and local bans continue to be enacted at the rate they have been. A CDC report released Thursday said the number of states with comprehensive indoor smoking bans went from zero in 2000 to 26 in 2010.

Another 10 states have laws than ban smoking in workplaces, bars or restaurants, but not in all three.

Gary Nolan, director of a smokers' rights group, said he wouldn't be surprised if the prediction came true. He said public health officials and others are putting tremendous pressure on bars and businesses to stamp out smoking.
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Comments
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AmericanHoney
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April 22, 2011
I don't really give a rat's rear end about taxes nor the revenue brought in from the cancer sticks.....the real issue is how smoker's rights trump the rights of NON smokers! How fair is it for our lungs and fresh air to be gunked up by your poor choice to smoke?! To me, SMOKING is a privilege, not a RIGHT anyhow!!!!!

PS: I bet you're one of those smoker ladies whose voice is all raspy and scratchy like a man!
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countrywoman
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April 22, 2011
i sat here and readed these comments i have to say something every time they raise taxs i do not hear from you all nonsmokers you reap what every they spend the taxs on and never say a word you all get as much if not more out of it than we do i agree with what a person said to me one time if it was not for cigaretts and booze taxs the country would go broke i am not saying they are good for you but it is a persos right especialy if that person pays just as much taxs as the nonsmoker but this in your pipe and smoke it!!!
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AmericanHoney
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April 22, 2011
OK...let me clarify a little more. MOST of the cars were not running..you know...gas prices...Anyway my point was, I couldnt sit there and enjoy the nice breeze because it was full of cigarette addicts gunking up the fresh air! Do people have the right to smoke, ABSOLUTELY! Do they have the right to do it and offend my lungs in PUBLIC.....HECK NO!!!!!! Smoke at home or put it out! Don't even get me started on people who smoke with a cracked window and children in the car. They should face cruelty charges for subjecting their children's delicate lung aveoli to that mess!!!!!!
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AmericanHoney
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April 22, 2011
UMM----My car was NOT RUNNING!!!!!!
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MandeeP1001
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April 22, 2011
I agree with AmericanHoney and Brookery7777. My child also has asthma and so does my niece and it's not fair to them to have to breath someone else's cigarette smoke. If you want to smoke and give yourself cancer that's one thing but to make my child inhale second hand smoke is not right!!
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AmericanHoney
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April 22, 2011
I agree with Brookery7777. PEOPLES RIGHT TO SMOKE ENDS AT MY RIGHT TO BREATH DECENTLY HEALTHY AIR!!!! I am asthmatic due to parents smoking in the home with me as a child...I have never smoked and neither does my husband. The PUBLIC does not have the right to expose my child to secondhand smoke! The other day there was a long wait in the car rider line at our local elementary school, it was a nice day so I decided to sit there and wait with my windows down....WRONG because STUPID SMOKERS were puffing all around me and I couldn't breathe!!!!! THAT IS VIOLATING MY RIGHTS! Same thing in the line to pick up meds at the pharmacy! I get sick of that crap everywhere I go!!!!!!! Smoking is nasty and if you want to puff away on cancer sticks do it alone!!!!!! I DONT WANNA SMELL IT!!!!!!
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rt_elms
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April 21, 2011
One kid at school has a peanut allergy and instantly PB&J sandwiches are banned. Someone has a problem with cigarette smoke and all smoking is banned. Telling a smoker they can only smoke in their own home won’t work either. Reference the lawsuits between neighbors in Florida and New York over just the sent of smoke wafting in through an open window. This a problem that seems to have no solution.
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brookery7777
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April 21, 2011
As a general rule of thumb, your rights end where other people begin. My five year old has a mild case of asthma. She plays sports and generally a healthy child...until she is exposed to second hand smoke. A person smoking around the playground at the park means we have to leave or face a long night or even days of coughing and wheezing. The sad thing is she is not a rarity. Should any child, any adult, whether they have health problems or not, have to face increased health risks because your choice? Do i think you have the right to smoke? Yes, in your own home, not around me or my child.
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truthshouldbetold
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April 21, 2011
As far as the rights argument goes, wouldn't it be the right of the majority of the people in the restaurant, business, office, etc. not to have to tolerate and breathe the polluted air from your bad habits. IF that pursuit is so all consuming that you can't do anything with out a cigarette, stay at home. It is not a right, it was an activity that was overlooked for far too long and common sense is finally prevailing after numerous secretaries, waitresses, and even children have succumbed to the diseases that the selfish byproduct of second hand smoke perpetuates.
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rc2010
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April 21, 2011
I think this is against peoples rights, no one should be able to tell anyone that they cannot smoke. The people making these decisions think just because they do not smoke that they can stop everyone else.
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BARRYGOLDWATER
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April 21, 2011
Its amazing how the goverment continues to attempt to take away rights of individuals. Calhouns atty wants to ban smoking everywhere.
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