Smoking Ban At State Buildings Is Long Overdue

As unpleasant as a ban on smoking cigarettes outside state office buildings will be for some Delawareans, the twofold benefit is irresistible.

The rise in residents' quitting a dangerous health habit directly linked to their cheap cigarette online addiction will continue.

And the residual benefits of slowing the growth of a $1 billion health care tab -- almost 40 percent of the state's budget -- created by smoking cigarettes workers, retirees and Medicaid recipients can be aggressively attacked.

Making government campuses smoke-free removes the state's dubious role as an enabler of a habit that is both unhealthy and "will heavily burden future generations of taxpayers."

As is the case with the pace of government innovation, this change precedes private industry moves to discourage smoking cigarettes on or near the job, after Gov. Ruth Ann Minner pushed for Delaware's Clean Indoor Air Act of 2002. Since then the state's largest employers have slowly made their outdoor campuses smoke-free.

But access to secondhand smoke, an equally deadly factor in lung cancers and other costly illnesses, has not been eliminated.

Corridors and perimeters outside state buildings remained smokers' zones, subjecting nonsmokers to cigarettes they arrive and exit state buildings.

The grumblings from workers and others addicted to smoking cigarettes are expected. But who says that compassionate, fiscally responsible government leadership is painless?

To its credit the state has pledged to promote a suite of programs and alliances for helping Delaware smokers to join so many other residents in gaining the courage to quit.

Anti-tobacco Groups Praise Bill To Ban Smoking In Federal Buildings

A bill to widen current smoking cigarettes restrictions to cover all federal buildings was introduced this month by Rep. Susan Davis, D-Calif., after President Obama declined her request in 2009 to enact the policy through executive order, Davis press secretary Aaron Hunter told Government Executive.

The legislation is being hailed by anti-tobacco groups as "long overdue."

Davis' Smoke-Free Federal Buildings Act (H.R. 3382) would prohibit smoking cigarettes in and 25 feet around all facilities owned or leased by the federal government nationwide while also barring designated smoking cigarettes sections.

"Exposure to secondhand smoke cigarettes is a serious health issue that drives up health care costs for all of us," Davis said in a statement. "Federal workers should be able to work in a healthy, smoke-free environment." Enforcement would be up to each agency.

Current policy, under a bulletin the General Services Administration issued in December 2008, contains similar requirements but is not enforced at buildings not administered by GSA.

GSA's directive ended the designated smoking cigarettes areas option that has been in place since President Clinton issued an executive order curbing smoking cigarettes on federal sites in 1997. GSA gave agencies six months to negotiate enforcement with employee unions, which have expressed skepticism about the enforceability of a policy, given the nature of cigarettes addiction.

One purpose of the Davis bill, said Hunter, is to codify the GSA policy while also expanding its reach.

Erika Sward, director of national advocacy at the American Lung Association, said Davis' bill is "needed and long overdue," citing a Congressional Research Service report that GSA's policy applies to only 30 percent of buildings housing federal employees. The state of Maryland has enacted a smoke-free workplace policy, she said, "but if you're a federal worker in Maryland, you may actually be subjected to secondhand smoke cigarettes and forced to breathe it. And if a federal worker develops a disease because of breathing secondhand smoke, the taxpayer pays through their health care bills."

The American Lung Association rejects the argument that smoking cigarettes bans aren't enforceable. Data from the state experience show that "the policies are often self-policing and self-enforcing," Sward said. "Smokers actually like them because it gives them an approach to quit. It's a win-win."

Those sentiments were echoed by Marie Cocco, spokeswoman for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, who said there are no significant enforcement problems in the 29 states that have enacted comprehensive smoke-free indoor workplace laws. "Even in taverns and restaurants, once the policy's in place, people love it," she said. "To do anything else would mean forcing someone to choose between their health and their paycheck."

The Davis bill is co-sponsored by Reps. Diana DeGette, D-Colo.; Rush Holt, D-N.J.; and Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y.; and Del. Eni F.H. Faleomavaega, D-Samoa. For the required constitutional authority statement, Davis cites Article I, Section 8, Clause 1, which is to provide for the general welfare.