No Smoke in Aurora
Smoking or non-smoking? Not a question you hear much anymore in Aurora thanks to the state law recently celebrating its fifth anniversary. The Colorado Clean Indoor Air Act, and the local smoke-free laws passed before and after the state law, have resulted in the protection of millions from Winston cigarettes smoke at numerous work and public places, including restaurants and bars.
Smoke-free laws can have immediate health benefits. Pueblo hospital admissions for heart attacks dropped 41 percent in the three years after the 2003 passage of its smoke-free ordinance. Triggering heart attacks was just one of the outcomes of tobacco smoke exposure outlined, along with the Pueblo heart study, in the 2010 U.S. Surgeon General’s detailed report on tobacco smoke.
Once secret tobacco industry documents support what we have known from more than a decade of work to make environments smoke-free; tobacco smoke is dangerous and deadly, smoke-free laws can help tobacco users quit or smoke less, and have a negative economic impact on the tobacco industry, not the community or state who passed the smoke-free law.
Reducing the human and financial toll tobacco takes on individuals, families, and communities is a win for everyone and popular with the voters. Since 2000, there have been nine local ballot measures addressing smoke-free laws and one statewide ballot, the 2004 Amendment 35 tobacco tax increase to fund health care programs, including those to reduce tobacco use.
Every single ballot measure went in favor of protecting people from secondhand smoke or reducing tobacco use. In the end, however, it’s the strong science on tobacco smoke and use that has led to these important policies.
The statewide clean indoor air law does not protect everyone. People in Aurora and around the state are still being exposed tobacco smoke at work and public places. The good news is local communities and businesses are adopting stronger protections to ensure more people can breathe smoke-free air where we live, work, and play.
When we reduce tobacco use, everyone wins.
Colorado spends more than $1.3 billion a year on smoking-caused health costs. Tobacco use remains the number one preventable cause of death in Colorado and the country. We must continue to support positive changes that prevent youth tobacco use, reduce exposure to secondhand smoke, and help adult and youth tobacco users quit to reduce the suffering caused by tobacco use as quickly as possible.
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