Smokers may soon have no safe havens to light up outside their own homes. That's the hope, at least, among anti-tobacco crusaders at the Center for Disease Control.
The federal health agency estimates that by 2020 every state may have a ban on smoking in public places, restaurants, bars, and the workplace. New York City has already banned butts in public buildings, restaurants, city parks and beaches - and the pedestrian plaza in Times Square.
Already 25 states prohibit indoor smoking.
Yet seven states have no restrictions whatsoever: Texas, West Virginia, Wyoming, South Carolina, Mississippi, Kentucky and Indiana.
"It is by no means a foregone conclusion that we'll get there by 2020," Dr. Tim McAfee, director of the CDC's Office on Smoking and Health, told the Associated Press. Despite the tenacity of the holdout states, McAfee said he remains confident about the prospect of a completely smoke-free nation.
"I'm relatively bullish we'll at least get close to that number," McAfee said.
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