Should Every State Ban Indoor Smoking?

"I'll give you my cigarettes when you take it from my cold, (cough, cough) dead hands."

That might be the rallying cry of smokers everywhere after Nanny Nation takes control of your cancer stick habit. According to The New York Times, federal health officials predict that by 2020, every state might have smoking bans in restaurants, bars and workplaces.

"It wouldn't surprise me if they prevailed," Gary Nolan, of a smokers' rights group Smoker's Club, told the Times. "It's just a little bit more liberty slipping away at the hands of big government."

The number of states with indoor smoking bans went to 25 in 2010 from zero in 2000. Nearly half of U.S. residents are covered by comprehensive state or local indoor smoking bans, the Center of Disease Control estimated

"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 Times. But "I'm relatively bullish we'll at least get close to that number."

It's too early to make definite assessments of the bans. But some studies show declines in adult heart attack rates and in childhood asthma attacks after smoking bans were adopted in some communities, according to the Times.