You don’t have to be a smoker for smoking to harm you. Secondhand smoke contains cancer-causing substances that can harm every organ in your body. Tobacco use is the single most preventable cause of premature death and disease in the U.S. Each year, more than 7,500 Alabamians die from smoking-related causes and another 850 die from exposure to secondhand smoke. Those are hard facts to ignore, especially when you consider that more than 75 percent of Alabamians don’t smoke or use tobacco.
We can protect our citizens form the dangers of tobacco use and secondhand smoke by adopting a statewide law prohibiting smoking in public places and work sites. Twenty-nine states have already adopted such a law. Let’s be the next state to protect our citizens from the harmful effects of secondhand smoke.
Janet E. Hill
