All North Dakota Workplaces Could be Smoke-Free by Christmas

Publication Date: 2012-09-13

• Author:John Michaelson
• Publication:Public News Service

The fall election is now less than eight weeks away, and one of the big questions facing North Dakotans is whether to approve a ballot initiative banning smoking in workplaces statewide.

Approval of the measure would lead to better health, according to Janet Maxson, a nurse practitioner in Minot who volunteers with the American Heart Association.

"The mindset of the public is realizing that tobacco-free is the right, as opposed to people not having to breathe secondhand smoke. The evidence-based science now has shown us that all that passive smoke still is a major cause of coronary artery disease and also of death."...

Some establishments in North Dakota already are smoke-free voluntarily, and workplace bans already are in effect in a number of cities - so Maxson says statewide is the next logical step.

"I've been kind of polling my patients that have been coming in, and every single one of them that have been in feels that it is time for our state to take this initiative and have it, like so many states have already done - to have a tobacco-free workplace."...