A new Gallup Poll finds that a majority of Americans oppose smoking bans in

restaurants, workplaces, hotels, and bars. For the first three of those

places, majorities favor designated smoking areas. For bars, 44% prefer

set-asides, while 31% want no restrictions at all. Complete smoking

prohibition (treating tobacco cigarettes like marijuana cigarettes) is

favored by 16% of Americans. The power of junk science has declined

slightly, with 51% of Americans now believing that secondhand smoke is “very

harmful,” a drop of 5% from 2000. Readers who want the full details on the

junk science about secondhand smoke, which is being used as a smokescreen by

the tobacco prohibition lobby, should pick up the book Passive Smoke: The

EPA’s Betrayal of Science and Policy, by Gio B. Gori and John Luik.