Statewide smoking ban’s time has come

Publication Date: 2009-02-04

• Publication:Chronicle-Tribune, IN

A bill in the Indiana legislature would ban smoking in all of Indiana's public places.

A study by researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine's Bowen Research Center may help the cause.

The study looked at secondhand smoke and its effect on Hoosiers, and the results are persuasive...

The proposed bill would ban smoking, with no exceptions, in bars, restaurants, casinos and other public places statewide.

Normally our thought would be that government shouldn't regulate what is, in essence, a personal habit, but the burden that smoking places on our state in terms of health risks and costs outweighs that argument in this case.

Therefore, we believe such a ban is necessary in Indiana because less than a third of Indiana's more than 6 million residents are covered by local smoke-free ordinances.