Facts
FACT: Voters Want a Smoke-Free Oklahoma
- 68% of voters believe the rights of customers and employees to breathe clean air is more important than the rights of smokers to smoke and owners to allow smoking.
- 59% of Oklahomans SUPPORT a smoke-free environment for Oklahoma workers and families.
- Smoke-free laws will increase business – 18% of those surveyed say they would go out MORE OFTEN if restaurants and bars were smoke-free.
- 94% of Oklahomans believe secondhand smoke is a health hazard – 59% say it is a “serious” health hazard, 22% say it is a “moderate” health hazard, and 13% say it is a “minor” health hazard.
FACT: Secondhand Smoke is a Major Health Hazard in Oklahoma
- There is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke.
- Approximately 700 deaths in Oklahoma each year are attributable to secondhand smoke exposure, about the same number that are caused by motor vehicle accidents.
- Oklahoma’s “Smoking in Public Places and Indoor Workplaces Act” was broadened in 2003, but it left several broad exemptions or loopholes.
- These loopholes pose a known public health risk for thousands of Oklahoma workers in these places, including many nonsmokers. All visitors to these places also are subject to harmful exposure.
FACT: Smoke-Free Will Save and Protect Oklahoma Workers
- Smoke-free policies are the most economic and effective protection from secondhand smoke exposure – separate areas, air cleaning or ventilation does not eliminate exposure.
- Smoke-free workplace laws immediately and notably improved heart health (including fewer heart attack hospitalizations) particularly in nonsmokers, according to studies in Colorado, Indiana, Montana, New York, Ohio, Germany, Ireland, Italy and Scotland.
FACT: Smoke-Free Will Save Oklahoma Dollars
- Secondhand smoke exposure imposes economic costs on individuals, businesses and society as a whole through direct and indirect medical costs and productivity losses.
- New York’s smoke-free air law led to $56 million savings in direct health care costs in 2004.
- Medical costs and economic losses to nonsmokers suffering from lung cancer or heart disease due to second hand smoke are estimated at nearly $6 billion a year.
Fact Sheets
Here are several fact sheets relating to various aspects of secondhand smoke that you might find to be informative.
