Currently, smoking is banned in most Illinois public buildings, such as restaurants, taverns, pubs, hotels and work places. What’s next? The Lake County Housing Authority is reflecting on extending the prohibition on tobacco smoking.

A ban on smoking in all of the state’s public spaces is subject of a debate. According to David Northern, the Lake County Housing Authority executive director, this measure is necessary because the agency has a large number of people with disabilities, who have poor health condition and no resources to pay for treatment. It is unfair for these non-smokers to worsen their health problems by being forced to inhale tobacco smoke from active smokers.

An estimated 80 public housing authorities in 15 U.S. states have adopted smoke-free policies, but up to now, none in Illinois, said Jim Bergman, director of the Smoke-free Environments Law Project based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The statewide project offers information and consultation for businesses, local units of government, and people in Michigan on policies and practices to provide protection to employees and the general public from the destructive effects of tobacco smoke.

"I think it's an extremely wise move for them and their residents," Bergman said on the topic of smoking ban. "Once one housing authority in a state does this, then it's likely that others will follow," he added.

The first known public smoking ban was put by Pope Urban VII in 1590, when he menaced people with excommunicating them if they "took tobacco in the porch way of or inside a church, whether it be by chewing it, smoking it with a pipe or sniffing it in powdered form through the nose."