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Facts About Secondhand Smoke and Smoke-free Laws

-- Twenty-two states, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico have enacted smoke-free laws that cover restaurants and bars. The states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont and Washington. (While the Maryland law takes effect October 1, it will not be fully enforced until February 1, 2008.)

-- Secondhand smoke contains more than 4,000 chemicals, including at least 69 known to cause cancer. Chemicals in secondhand smoke include formaldehyde, cyanide, arsenic, carbon monoxide, methane, benzene, and radioactive polonium 210.

-- The U.S. Surgeon General's 2006 Report on secondhand smoke found that secondhand smoke is a proven cause of lung cancer, heart disease, serious respiratory illnesses such as bronchitis and asthma, low birth weight and sudden infant death syndrome.

-- The Surgeon General also found that secondhand smoke is responsible for tens of thousands of deaths in the United States each year; there is no safe level of exposure; only smoke-free laws provide effective protection from secondhand smoke; and smoke-free laws protect health without harming business.

For more information, go to http://www.pactonline.org or http://www.tobaccofreekids.org/reports/shs/.