Five years ago, I was lying in a hospital bed recovering from surgery to remove melanoma from my abdomen. I had seen so many others suffer from various other forms of cancer. I resolved then that I would do everything I could as an elected official to fight this terrible disease and improve opportunities for early cancer detection.

Now as county executive, it is my responsibility to push the debate forward and reduce exposure of non-smokers and children to secondhand smoke. Such exposure causes Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, bronchitis, coronary heart disease, lung cancer and numerous other ailments.

Even though evidence of the...