County health officer: We need smoking ban

The county's top health official made a pitch last night for banning smoking in bars and restaurants.

"It's matter with a great deal of urgency," county Health Officer Frances B. Phillips told members of the County Council, who were functioning as the Board of Health for the meeting. "It's a problem whose time has come in Anne Arundel County."

Ms. Phillips noted that cancer is the leading cause of death in the county. And lung cancer is the No. 1 killer among cancers.

In 2004, 900 people died of cancer in the county, compared to 796 people who died from heart disease, the second-leading cause of death.

And from...