Since 2008 Pennsylvanians at bars, eating in restaurants and going about their lives and workday business in most other places have enjoyed protection from secondhand smoke. Like so many things, however, the state couldn’t manage to put together a comprehensive and fair set of regulations on the issue.

Now they have another shot at it, with a pair of companion bills in the state House and Senate that would do what should have been done nearly a decade ago.

It’s past time for state officials to finish what they started and bring Pennsylvania’s partial smoking ban in line with the majority of other states’. Exemptions in the current law leave tens of thousands of employees and patrons in casinos, private clubs and some bars and hotels exposed to secondhand smoke on a daily basis.

That’s simply unacceptable. The health risks and financial implications of smoking have been known quantities for some time now. And yet what should be a simple matter of promoting what’s in the public interest has resulted in a nearly decade-long battle over why it’s acceptable to allow the use of a known carcinogen in public places.

We know, and have known for many years now, that both smoking and secondhand smoke are exceedingly dangerous. They cause cancer, heart disease and lung disease, and kill thousands of Pennsylvanians each year. They cost Pennsylvania billions of dollars in tobacco-related health care costs each year, and the state’s economy billions of dollars in lost annual productivity. In 2015 secondhand smoke killed 3,000 non-smokers in Pennsylvania, according to Deborah Brown, president and CEO of the American Lung Association.

If those facts don’t amount to a call to action for legislators, we don’t know what does. They need to act in the best interest of all Pennsylvanians.

Legislators need to stop putting off what should be an easy political victory and vote in favor of a full-strength statute that removes most of the exemptions carved out in the 2008 law. Those exemptions were a testament to the power of special interests in Pennsylvania politics, and they have been shown to be irresponsible and based on unfounded economic concerns.

If residents want to smoke in their homes or vehicles, the state can’t — and shouldn’t try — to stop them.

But when a personal choice threatens the health and well-being of those in public places and people who are simply doing their jobs, then elected officials have an obligation to enact appropriate regulations to protect them.