State's smoking ban has helped save lives by Hugh Holliman

The following editorial appeared in the High Point Enterprise: http://www.hpe.com/view/full_story/17507063/article-GUEST-COLUMN--State%E2%80%99s-smoking-ban-has-helped-save-lives?instance=main_article

GUEST COLUMN: State’s smoking ban has helped save lives


BY HUGH HOLLIMAN

As many may know, I am a two-time lung cancer survivor. My sister also died of lung cancer, but she never smoked. Sadly, both of us were exposed to secondhand smoke on a daily basis as we grew up in Alamance County. Back then, we didn’t know the dangers of secondhand smoke. Some of us might have thought it was annoying, but we really didn’t know how deadly even short-term exposure to other people’s cigarette smoke could be.

Now we know. For years, the U.S. surgeon general has warned that there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke and that as little as 30 minutes of exposure can trigger a heart attack in patients who have heart disease or risk factors for heart disease. Moreover, long-term exposure is linked to a number of types of cancer, as well as a variety of lung diseases, including asthma, emphysema and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. This is why I worked so hard to enact the 2010 law that made North Carolina’s restaurants and bars smoke-free.

The Legislature did not undertake this issue lightly or irresponsibly. The enactment of the smoke-free law was the culmination of almost a decade of work on the part of legislators and health advocates to protect the health of the public.

Before my fellow legislators even considered the smoke-free law, we first put our own house in order. We made the floor of the North Carolina House of Representatives smoke-free. Believe it or not, there was a time in the not too distant past when the House Chamber was a real “smoke-filled room.” We then worked with the Senate to make all of the General Assembly buildings smoke-free and then expanded the law to include state government buildings and vehicles. Only when we were sure that smoke-free polices were fair and could be enforced did we push for the smoke-free restaurant and bar law.

It would have been wonderful if we could have made every indoor space smoke-free immediately, but politics is the “art of the possible,” and we knew enacting a law that protected as many people as possible, was the best thing we could do for public health. Now, almost 400,000 bar and restaurant workers go to work knowing that their hearts and lungs are protected by this new smoke-free policy.

Last year, our own North Carolina Division of Public Health issued a report noting a dramatic drop of 21 percent in heart attack hospital admissions since the law went into effect in 2010 and we are only beginning to see the positive impact of this law on the health of our citizens. In the years following California’s passage of a major tobacco control package, including a comprehensive smoke-free law, lung cancer rates in the state dropped five times more than the decline seen in other areas of the country. I firmly believe that we will see a similar benefit here in North Carolina.

In the short two years that the smoke-free law has been in effect, lives have been saved, workers’ health has been protected and millions of patrons can dine out or have a drink with friends without putting their health at risk. Our law is huge step in the right direction for our state’s health.

Former N.C. Rep. Hugh Holliman lives in Lexington.
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