Dear North Carolina,

I can not even express how grateful I am to you for implementing the new law that makes all restauants (& bars) in NC smoke free! I am so glad that as of January 2, 2010, I won’t have to worry about which restaurants I take my girls to. They will all be safe!

Moving to NC from CA, a state that has had that law since I was a kid, has been an amazing experience so far. I have to admit that I was a little shocked the first time we went out to eat in NC. I did a double take when we were asked “Smoking or Non-Smoking?” Of course the smell that hit my nose when we walked in should’ve been a dead giveaway as to what we were just asked. My husband and I asked the girls if we could try a different restaurant, but they wanted to stay put. It was one of their favorite places to eat back home, so it was hard to pry them away.

We remember the commercials back home from when we were growing up, saying that smoke doesn’t know how to stay in the smoking section and we were a little uneasy the whole time we were in there, wondering if we did the right thing eating in.

Over the next few months, we made it a point to eat at places that didn’t have smoking sections, or just pick up dinner and eat at home. Kinda took some of the fun out of going out to eat, but I’d rather have my lungs and healthy children than enjoy a meal that could harm us. Trust me… it was worth the extra effort.

We know that second hand smoke contains at least 250 chemicals known to be toxic, including more than 50 that can cause cancer. We also know that secondhand smoke causes heart disease and lung cancer in nonsmoking adults, and asthma and other respiratory illnesses in children. We also know that according to the California EPA, secondhand smoke is estimated to have caused approximately 3,400 lung cancer deaths and 22,700-69,600 heart disease deaths annually among nonsmokers in the US. *

So many scary facts that have made it a huge deal for us to protect our girls from exposure to secondhand smoke, this new law is going to make things just a little bit easier. Now, starting with the new year, we won’t have to be as selective of where we go out to eat, and I’m sure my girls are going to have more fun choosing where we go! I’m pretty sure that there are more folks that feel just as excited as we do!! So thank you!! We thank you, and our lungs thank you!

Sincerely,

The Mommy Brain Family

* Facts from the CDC.gov

More info: SmokeFreeNC.gov