. "5 The Background of Smoking Bans." Secondhand Smoke Exposure and Cardiovascular Effects: Making Sense of the Evidence. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2010.
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Secondhand Smoke Exposure and Cardiovascular Effects: Making Sense of the Evidence
in people with preexisting disease (HHS, 1972). Table 5-1 lists some of the scientific reports and the clean-air policies implemented in the United States since the 1972 report; these milestones are detailed further in the surgeon general’s 2006 report (HHS, 2006). Restrictions on smoking in public places, government buildings, and airplanes were implemented in the 1970s, most of which limited but did not ban smoking. In 1973, Arizona became the first state to have some smoke-free public places, and the Civil Aeronautics Board requested no-smoking sections on all commercial airline flights (Koop, 1986). In the 1980s, several reports—The Health Consequences of Involuntary Smoking: A Report of the Surgeon General (HHS,
TABLE 5-1 Summary of Milestones in Decreasing Indoor Tobacco Smoke in the United Statesa
Year
Event
1971
The surgeon general proposes a federal smoking ban in public places.
1972
The first report of the surgeon general to identify secondhand smoke as posing a health risk is released.
1973
Arizona becomes the first state to restrict smoking in several public places. The Civil Aeronautics Board requires no-smoking sections on all commercial airline flights.
1974
Connecticut passes the first state law to apply smoking restrictions in restaurants.
1975
Minnesota passes a statewide law restricting smoking in public places.
1977
Berkeley, California, becomes the first community to limit smoking in restaurants and other public places.
1983
San Francisco passes a law to place private workplaces under smoking restrictions.
1986
A report of the surgeon general focuses entirely on the health consequences of involuntary smoking, proclaiming secondhand smoke a cause of lung cancer in healthy nonsmokers. The National Research Council issues a report on the health consequences of involuntary smoking. Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights becomes a national group; it had formed as California GASP (Group Against Smoking Pollution).
1987
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services establishes a smoke-free environment in all its buildings, affecting 120,000 employees nationwide. Minnesota passes a law requiring all hospitals in the state to prohibit smoking by 1990. A Gallup poll finds, for the first time, that a majority (55%) of U.S. adults favor a complete ban on smoking in all public places.
1988
A congressionally mandated smoking ban takes effect on all domestic airline flights of 2 h or less. New York City’s ordinance for clean indoor air takes effect; the ordinance bans or severely limits smoking in various public places and affects 7 million people. California implements a statewide ban on smoking aboard all commercial intrastate airplanes, trains, and buses.
