Indiana officials acted again against the medical and economic danger of secondhand smoke.

It will take a brave two-party jump, however, to keep that occasion from being omitted, as it was last meeting.

The Indiana House Public Policy Committee recently approved a legislation to prohibit smoking in restaurants, bars and other public places.

Like last year's suggestions, the bill makes a difficult action by exempting casinos and pari-mutuel wagering venues. But adherents did beat back efforts to prohibit local communities to pass laws stronger than state law.

Researchers said that no Republicans voted aye in the 7-5 committee decision to send the bill to the full House. The Senate, which remains heavily Republican, voted a similar bill down last year after it was passed by the House.

Since that time, North Carolina has become the 26th state to decree an anti-smoking legislation. In general all 22 of those bans are classified, by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as 100 percent positive effect.

Bars and restaurants owners supposed that smoking limitations will hurt their business. And this trend would exist during a smoking decline.

Not only this one but a lot of studies also showed that secondhand smoke is very dangerous for customers and employees of public accommodations health.

Just in time for last year's session of the General Assembly, the Indiana University School of Medicine released a damning report on secondhand smoke.

Statistics show that almost 1,200 Hoosiers had died in 2007 from lung cancer, heart disease and other results of cigarette smoke.

The researchers noted that nonsmokers are less safe in Indiana than in all but a few other states, because few other states have a higher amount of smokers.

In general smoking ban in public places have good results. For example after smoking was banned in all public places in Italy, we remarked in the population of Rome fewer acute coronary events (11.2% fewer in the 35- to 64-year-old population and 7.9% fewer in 65- to 74-year-olds) than in previous years.

And men in the youngest population and young people living in low socioeconomic census blocks appeared to have the greatest reduction after the new smoking ban.