Will The Ban On Smoking In Maryland Lead To A Heartier Life?

The great state of Maryland… that would be where I reside. Well, we have now joined the likes of 20 other states across the US with a ban on smoking law that was made official last week by our Governor O’Malley. Don’t get me started on politics and our fearless leader, I won’t go there with you, but I am a fan of this law. Being a cardiac nurse, I applaud anything that aides in the cessation of cigarette smoking.

The law requires bars and restaurants, as well as private clubs such as American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars halls, to be smoke-free by Feb. 1. Some businesses eligible for financial hardship waivers from the state would get a three-year extension but must be smoke-free by 2011. With the law signed, tobacco shops are virtually the only public indoor places where smoking will be allowed in Maryland.

Am I worried that my job will be affected by a law that prohibits smoking in public places? Heck no. Do I think that it will be nicer to go out and eat at restaurants and pubs with my family? Yes! There will be none of the second hand smoke emanating from my clothes and my kid’s hair, and no embarrassing comments from my kids about, “They are smoking, do they know it is bad for them and it will KILL them”?

We all know about the risk of heart disease and smoking, I will not bore you with the numbers, but it will be interesting if someone does a second hand smoke study in a few years. After the ban has been in effect for some time.

“It’s no longer fashionable to be smoking,” House Speaker Michael E. Busch said after yesterday’s bill-signing ceremony, at which he and Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller joined O’Malley. “When I was growing up in the 1960s and 1970s, it was a different thing – you were strange if you didn’t smoke. But now there’s no longer a question about the carcinogenic effect of tobacco. Jurisdictions around the state were already starting to do it. States around the country were already doing it. The time had come.”

Do you think that this type of law infringes upon your rights? Do you welcome this, or see it as a hindrance? How do you feel it will affect cardiac disease in the near future, if at all?

via Baltimore Sun