It�s something most people take for granted. But in Colorado, clean, smokefree air is not always a given. Restaurant and bar employees work everyday in smoky, unhealthy environments. Children are exposed to toxic carcinogens from smoke-filled air in public places and at home. And people with asthma and other breathing ailments suffer from exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke.

Secondhand smoke, or environmental tobacco smoke, is a killer in Colorado. Containing nearly 5,000 chemical compounds, including arsenic, formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide, secondhand smoke has been classified as a �Class A� carcinogen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency�the same classification assigned to asbestos. Each year in Colorado, 10 infant deaths are indirectly attributable to secondhand smoke�and approximately 4,400 cases of asthma in children under age 15 are caused by exposure to secondhand smoke. Smoke-filled rooms have up to six times the air pollution as a busy highway and are the number one source of indoor pollution in Colorado.