2009-01-27 18:15:32 - Smoking has been banned in private apartments in Belmont, California, a move supported and requested by Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), but that is only the latest in a series of smoking restrictions in places many smokers consider private, and nothing compared to what many voters would like to impose.

Judges in most states now issue orders banning smoking in a car or home -- sometimes even 24-48 hours before a child arrives -- to protect children involved in custody disputes from exposure.

Similarly, some 17 states have banned smoking in cars and private homes to protect foster children, and a growing number of jurisdictions have banned smoking in cars

when kids are present.

Nonsmokers are beginning to win law suits when tobacco drifts or recirculates into the apartments, and more private businesses are refusing to hire people who smoke, even if they only smoke off the job, some adoption agencies will not consider smokers as prospective parents, and some smokers are being denied operations because their refusal to discontinue smoking substantially increases the odds that the operation will not be successful.

More recently, New Haven, CT, and Truro in Canada, have banned smoking on some public streets, and the American Lung Association has said it will press for "smoking restrictions on sidewalks in commercial areas."

Surveys now show that almost 25% of voters would totally outlaw tobacco smoking, more than 50% would ban smoking in all homes, and many believe that "governments should make it illegal for people with children to smoke."

"Smokers poison the air the public and their own children are forced to breathe with toxic carcinogenic fumes, pollute the air in adjoining apartments, inflate taxes and the costs of health insurance for nonsmokers, are the major cause of residential fire deaths, kill thousands of their own children every year, and are a major contributor to litter on beaches, streets, and elsewhere. Isn't it time we stopped tolerating if not encouraging this outrageous behavior and harm to the public, and cracked down as we do with other child abusers, polluters, and public nuisances," suggests public interest law professor John Banzhaf, Executive Director of ASH.

PROFESSOR JOHN F. BANZHAF III
Executive Director and Chief Counsel
Action on Smoking and Health (ASH)
2013 H Street, NW
Washington, DC 20006, USA
(202) 659-4310 // ash.org