Don't look now, but Pennsylvania is about to become the ashtray of the Northeast. That's because it's surrounded by states with either statewide smoke-free laws or states where cities and counties have acted on their own to ban smoking in public places.

In the meantime, Pennsylvania is like a scene from an old black-and-white movie, where smoke and haze permeate the room and the actors' porcelain skin belies the internal damage to their health. New York, Delaware and now New Jersey have enacted comprehensive bans on workplace smoking, while counties in Maryland and West Virginia, and Columbus and a few small cities in Ohio have imposed their own regulations.

That's because studies show that the phenomenon of secondhand smoke makes the health hazards of puffing a shared experience. Why doesn't Pennsylvania get it?

In Harrisburg, Senate Bill 602 -- which would clear cigarette smoking out of workplaces and public spaces including bars, restaurants, arenas and bingo halls -- languishes in committee, suggesting that Pennsylvania may have to go the piecemeal route. Philadelphia officials have discussed a public smoking ban, and the councils that represent Pittsburgh and Allegheny County should coordinate their own similar legislation.

This election year is the perfect time to ask legislative and gubernatorial candidates how hard they'll work to ban workplace smoking. After the pay-raise debacle, why not clean out our lungs while we clean up state government?