The report covers new tobacco legislation relating to smoke-free indoor air, minors access to tobacco, tobacco advertising, and tobacco taxes effective through December 31, 1998. It also provides a complete update to a previous surveillance summary on state tobacco laws published in November 1995. Twenty states and the District of Columbia limit smoking in private worksites. Forty-one states and the District of Columbia have laws restricting smoking in state government worksites, but only 13 of these states meet the nation's Healthy People 2000 objective.
All states prohibit the sale of tobacco products to minors.
Twenty-three states and D.C. may suspend or revoke a retail tobacco products license for violation of youth access laws. Forty-one states and D.C. have restrictions on cigarette vending machines. Nineteen states and D.C. meet the Healthy People 2000 objective to ban cigarette vending machines in areas accessible to minors, an increase of eight states since the 1995 report. All states have an excise tax on cigarettes. Only 42 states have an excise tax on smokeless tobacco products and many tax these products at a per-pack rate much lower than that for cigarettes.