March 15, 2010 - Kansas Gov. Mark Parkinson has signed a bill imposing restrictions on smoking in restaurants, offices, and other public places that will go into effect July 1. The bill makes Kansas the 25th state to impose a smoking ban in restaurants and bars in order to protect patrons and employees from secondhand-smoke exposure.

According to media reports, health experts estimate that about 4,000 Kansans die of smoking-related causes each year and about 300 die because of illness related to secondhand-smoke exposure. A report from the Institute of Medicine documented the links between inhaling secondhand smoke and heart disease. Secondhand-Smoke Exposure and Cardiovascular Effects: Making Sense of the Evidence also found conclusive evidence that smoking bans reduce the chances of heart attacks among nonsmokers as well as smokers.

Smoking bans are only one measure needed to further cut the rate of smoking in the United States, which has stubbornly hovered around 20 percent of the adult population for many years, says Ending the Tobacco Problem: A Blueprint for the Nation. This IOM report proposes a two-pronged approach to curb tobacco use, the first element of which focuses on strengthening existing tobacco control measures such as indoor smoking restrictions, while the second calls for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to have broad regulatory authority over tobacco marketing, packaging, and distribution, and for other revisions to current tobacco policy. In June of 2009, pursuant to IOM recommendations, the FDA enacted the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.

• Governor's Press Release on Statewide Public Smoking Ban
• H.R. 1256: Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act