South Dakota voters have already made their position clear: They want smoke-free public spaces.

Lawmakers, however, seem to think they know better. They are attempting to significantly weaken that law via House Bill 1215, which has passed both chambers of the Legislature and awaits consideration by the governor.

HB 1215 would allow local municipalities to grant licenses to bars to allow cigar smoking, an erosion of the voter-approved comprehensive smoke-free law.

That law was first passed with bipartisan legislative support and signed by the governor in 2009. It was challenged and sent to the ballot in 2010, where voters decisively reaffirmed it by prohibiting smoking in nearly all workplaces, including restaurants, bars and gaming facilities. The initiative received 64% approval — a clear signal that voters understood the dangers of secondhand smoke.

Public support for smoke-free spaces has only grown in the years since. Voters recognized a simple truth: There is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke, and they did not want it in their public spaces. HB 1215 weakens that law, which was updated in 2019 to include e-cigarettes.

As has become typical in our state, HB 1215 moved through the Legislature with little public notice or meaningful discussion. If enacted, it would increase the number of businesses allowing indoor smoking.

The consequences would be both swift and damaging.

In recent years, South Dakota lawmakers have increasingly taken steps to undercut voter-approved initiatives. Medicaid expansion, for example, has been challenged multiple times with varying degrees of success, as lawmakers fast-track changes to policies that citizens spent months organizing and working to pass.

They are now handing a significant gift to Big Tobacco, which does plenty to undercut the health of South Dakotans. Tobacco products remain the leading preventable cause of disease and death in the state as smoking is linked to at least 12 types of cancer, including lung, liver and colorectal as well as heart disease. The industry further stresses the state’s health care system as smoking adds $433 million to South Dakota health care costs each year, including $75.5 million in Medicaid alone. There will be 6,200 South Dakotans diagnosed with cancer this year and 1,810 cancer deaths. Of those deaths, nearly 30% will have been caused by smoking.

Big Tobacco works tirelessly to undermine the voter-supported laws designed to prevent South Dakotans from suffering the health consequences of exposure to their deadly and addictive products.

Allowing more establishments to permit smoking in the public spaces where South Dakotans work, gather and spend time with friends and family puts both employees and patrons at risk. Adding more carcinogenic smoke to indoor spaces simply makes no sense — except for Big Tobacco’s profit margin.

Earlier this year, with a dangerous Medicaid expansion repeal bill on the table, lawmakers reversed course and affirmed the voter-approved law.

Lawmakers and Gov. Rhoden should, now again, honor the will of the voters.