As unpleasant as a ban on smoking outside state office buildings will be for some Delawareans, the twofold benefit is irresistible.
The rise in residents' quitting a dangerous health habit directly linked to their tobacco addiction will continue.
And the residual benefits of slowing the growth of a $1 billion health care tab -- almost 40 percent of the state's budget -- created by smoking workers, retirees and Medicaid recipients can be aggressively attacked.
Making government campuses smoke-free removes the state's dubious role as an enabler of a habit that is both unhealthy and "will heavily burden future generations of taxpayers."
As is the case with the pace of government innovation, this change precedes private industry moves to discourage smoking on or near the job, after Gov. Ruth Ann Minner pushed for Delaware's Clean Indoor Air Act of 2002. Since then the state's largest employers have slowly made their outdoor campuses smoke-free.
