From: bill@smokescreen.org
Date: Fri, 02/28/03
To send a letter supporting non preemptive smokefree workplace
legislation to Governor Ehrlich and MD legislative leaders, go to
www.smokefree.org/MD/ More than 80 people have already sent letters.
Panel hears proposal to extend ban on smoking
Law would affect bars, other businesses in state
By Stephanie Desmon
The Baltimore Sun
February 28, 2003
http://www.sunspot.net/news/local/bal-md.smoking28feb28,0,6782445.story
Cigarette smoking would be banned in nearly every business in Maryland -
including bars and restaurants - under legislation that would give the
state one of the strictest anti-smoking laws in the country.
Proponents call the bill heard by a Senate committee yesterday the Clean
Indoor Act of 2003 and say it would go a long way toward protecting
people from the dangers of secondhand smoke. Opponents call it a
Draconian measure that would do serious harm to Maryland's businesses.
"What we're trying to do here is give a reprieve to our citizens from
the death penalty they would have from indoor smoking," said Sen. Ida G.
Ruben, a Montgomery County Democrat and sponsor of the bill heard before
the Senate Finance Committee. "I know we're up against a tough lobby.
I'm not fooling myself. I feel this legislation will provide a healthier
life, a longer life."
A similar bill will be heard in the House of Delegates next month.
Under current law, smoking is prohibited in many public places,
including portions of restaurants, which are required to have no-smoking
sections. The new legislation, modeled on a law passed in Delaware last
year, would extend the ban into all parts of restaurants, bars, pool
halls, nursing homes and more.
California was the first state to institute such a ban, and several
other states are considering similar action this year.
The intention is to provide a healthy workplace for waitresses and
bartenders now breathing secondhand smoke and a healthy setting for
diners - especially those who suffer from respiratory illness.
"The good news is everybody wins if we pass this law," said Anne Marie
O'Keefe, a volunteer with the American Lung Association of Maryland.
"The only harm will be done to tobacco companies."
Not exactly, said lobbyists for the state's restaurant, hotel and
tourism industries. They argue that in Delaware, business has been down
35 percent to 40 percent this winter in bars within five miles of the
state's borders, where it is easy for smokers to find a place to light up.
They also say conventions might bypass the state. Delaware's racetracks,
since going smoke-free, have seen a dip in business, they say.
"It's hard to imagine there is any structure in the state that is not a
workplace," said Champe C. McCulloch, who represents the Maryland Hotel
and Lodging Association and the Maryland Tourism Council. "This is a
prohibition on smoking anywhere."
Bo Hardesty, owner of the Narrows Restaurant in Grasonville, said he
voluntarily went smoke-free in May and his business increased by 2
percent. But Claude Andersen of the Clyde's Restaurant Group said he
lost customers after a 1997 Howard County law requiring that smoking
areas be enclosed led him to ban smoking in the bar at the popular
Columbia location.
Paul E. Schurick, a spokesman for Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., said he
doesn't believe the governor would support the measure if it should make
it to his desk.
"It takes the restrictions far too far," he said. "Cigarette smoking is
still legal."
In 1995, the legislature allowed restaurants that did not have bar areas
to allow smoking in up to 40 percent of the establishment, but it had to
be confined to a separate, enclosed area. This bill would reverse that,
said Bruce C. Bereano, a lobbyist for the Maryland Association of
Tobacco and Candy Distributors.
"Whether someone likes it [smoking] or not," he said, "people should be
left alone."
In 2001, the village of Friendship Heights, a condominium community of
5,000 in Montgomery County, tried to go even further than Ruben's bill -
banning smoking outdoors as well. The village council later rescinded
the ordinance.
Having a no-smoking section isn't good enough to keep diners smoke-free
if there is a smoking section just across the room, said Brian Holmes,
whose granddaughter suffers from serious asthma. "I really can't take
her anywhere," he said. Denise Bellows, 20, a public health major at the
University of Maryland, College Park, works as a waitress to help pay
for school. She told the committee that she gets colds and sore throats
after working long shifts in the bar and restaurant.
"When it gets really busy," she said, "it's just one big cloud of smoke."
Copyright © 2003 The Baltimore Sun
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