Overview

Smoking is a hazard to people's health. Smoking kills more people than alcohol, AIDS, car crashes, illegal drugs, murders and suicides combined.

Tobacco companies make a product that kills 440,000 Americans a year, which is 1,200 Americans a day. Not only does the tobacco industry produce a lethal substance that kills hundreds of thousands of Americans a year, but it also spikes tobacco with specific ingredients in order to make tobacco so addictive that people will struggle for years, even their entire lives, to give up the deadly habit.

Unfortunately, smoking doesn't just affect smokers. Second-hand smoke leads to 35,000 deaths per year, and the Surgeon General has concluded that there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke. As a result, nearly 1,000 cities and several states have taken action to protect its citizens by banning smoking inside of all workplaces, including bars and restaurants. North Carolina's restaurant and bar workers are most at risk. Many workers spend 8 hours a day or more breathing in secondhand smoke. In a smoke-filled room for one shift of 8 hours, these workers are smoking the equivalent of 1 pack of cigarettes per day.

Smoking a pack a day should not be a condition for employment in North Carolina.

That's why NCPIRG is working to ban smoking in all workplaces, including bars and restaurants. In 2007, the state Legislature will be considering legislation to do just that. NCPIRG will be right there working with our allies to pass this important piece of legislation and to protect the health of North Carolina's workforce.