Indiana Action Center

Smokefree Air: A Smokefree Indiana Benefits Everyone!

It is time for Indiana legislators to protect the health of all workers by enacting a comprehensive statewide law to make all workplaces, including restaurants, bars, and casinos smokefree.

Exposure to Secondhand Smoke is a Serious Public Health Issue

• Secondhand smoke kills. Exposure to secondhand smoke is the 3^rd most preventable cause of death in the U.S. Secondhand smoke contains more than 50 known carcinogens and more than 4000 chemicals including formaldehyde, arsenic, cyanide, and carbon monoxide.  
• The Surgeon General says: “The debate is over, the science is clear, secondhand smoke is a serious health hazard that causes premature death and disease…” (June 27, 2006).
• The Surgeon General agrees: “Eliminating smoking in indoor spaces fully protects nonsmokers from exposure to secondhand smoke. Separating smokers from nonsmokers, cleaning the air, and ventilating buildings cannot eliminate exposure of nonsmokers to secondhand smoke.”
• Currently, 24 states and the District Columbia have passed 100% smokefree air laws in restaurants and bars including our neighbors of Ohio and Illinois.   An increasing number of states including Illinois have also passed laws which make their gaming facilities including casinos smokefree.  As more and more states go smokefree, Indiana is quickly becoming an economic island.

Smokefree laws improve health, protect workers and help business

• Restaurant/bar employees, in particular are vulnerable to secondhand smoke. Food service workers are 50 percent more likely to develop lung cancer, largely because they are exposed to secondhand smoke on the job.
• Approximately 16,000 Indiana casino workers are at greater risk for lung and heart disease and various cancers because of exposure to secondhand smoke. The Indiana casino industry is the fifth largest employer in Indiana.
• Cigarette smoking and secondhand smoke cost $92 billion in productivity losses annually, according to the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention.