Coalition lobbies to ban public smoking

Publication Date: 2005-03-28

• Author:CHAD WEIHRAUCH
• Publication:Asbury Park (NJ) Press

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It already has happened in California, New York and Delaware, among other states, and if a New Jersey advocacy group gets its way, smoking soon will be outlawed in bars and restaurants here as well.

Officials with a coalition that has been a leading supporter of the ban, NJ Breathes, including Director Lawrence Downs and the group's new chairman, Dr. George DiFerdinando, recently discussed the proposed legislation. Their focus is the "New Jersey Smoke-Free Air Act," a bill now moving in the state Senate that would ban smoking in essentially all indoor workplaces statewide. One of NJ Breathes' primary goals is the dissipation of the "social-norming" of smoking, Downs said. The group hopes to cut smoking overall, and in the immediate future to reduce the risk nonsmoking workers face when they are exposed to secondhand smoke.