10 Years of Breathing Easier

Ten years after California became the first state to ban smoking in nearly all indoor workplaces, it’s hard to remember how much hullabaloo surrounded that move.

Then-Assembly member Terry Friedman wrote the ban and steered it through a slalom course of tobacco lobbyists, winning passage in the Legislature and Gov. Pete Wilson’s signature. Before the law took effect in January 1995, cigarette makers spent millions trying unsuccessfully to trick voters into passing a Trojan horse initiative that would have eviscerated the ban.

The shrill predictions of a few hotel, bar and restaurant owners that smoking limits would kill state tourism have proved groundless a decade later. California once again started something: Seven states, including New York, now have indoor smoking bans, and nine more are considering them.

In California -- where for years the percentage of smokers has been lower than in most other states -- rates have dropped to historical lows. Just over 16% of California adults smoked in 2002, according to state data, down from 20% in 1990. Nationally, 22% of Americans call themselves smokers.

It’s impossible to say how much of this is because of the smoking bans and California’s long anti-tobacco education campaign. Youth smoking rates, and those for some ethnic groups, remain stubbornly above the statewide average. But there’s no disputing that attitudes have shifted, and a generation of California kids is growing up with little public exposure to cigarette smoke.

Today state health officials, Friedman and a bunch of middle school students plan to celebrate that considerable accomplishment. We thankfully join them by taking a deep, smoke-free breath in our workplace.