From: bill@smokescreen.org
Date: Fri, 09/19/03
GROUP SEEKS SMOKING BAN IN DISTRICT WORKPLACES
Health Concerns Cited; Restaurants Vow Fight
By Sewell Chan
The Washington Post
2003-09-18
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26533-2003Sep17.html
The smoking war has finally arrived in Washington.
Anti-smoking advocates launched a campaign yesterday to ban the use
of cigarettes, cigars and pipes in all D.C. workplaces, including
bars and restaurants. The only similar ban in the region was enacted
in 1999 in Montgomery County. A court there overturned it in May on
procedural grounds, but in July, the County Council passed a new
version of the ban, which has not taken effect.
More than 100 clergy members, public health experts, union leaders
and residents joined the D.C. advocates at a news conference
yesterday. D.C. Council members Adrian M. Fenty (D-Ward 4) and Kathy
Patterson (D-Ward 3) said they will introduce the legislation this
month.
The advocates said they are seeking the support of Mayor Anthony A.
Williams (D). His spokesman, Tony Bullock, said, "In general, he
supports restrictions on smoking in the workplace, but he wants to
take a closer look before he takes a firm position."
Bailus Walker Jr., a professor of environmental and occupational
medicine at Howard University who chairs the Smokefree D.C.
coalition, said: "The truth is simple: Secondhand smoke kills." He
cited evidence that secondhand smoke is a cause of lung cancer, heart
disease, bronchitis, asthma and other ailments.
The morning news conference, held on the steps of National City
Christian Church on Thomas Circle NW, was interrupted when Fenty fell
ill and nearly collapsed. He was taken to George Washington
University Hospital and released. A spokeswoman said later that Fenty
felt fatigued in the sun.
An April study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
found that 20.8 percent of adults in the District smoke cigarettes, a
slightly lower percentage than in Maryland (21.3 percent) and
Virginia (22.5 percent).
City law prohibits smoking in elevators, buses and subways, public
schools and the public areas of retail stores, health care facilities
and government-owned buildings. Private employers must maintain a
written policy designating areas where smoking is permitted.
Restaurants seating more than 50 people must set aside at least 50
percent of their seats as nonsmoking, or at least 25 percent if they
were built before 1988. Nightclubs are exempt from the law.
An industry association that represents about 500 restaurants, bars
and taverns in the District and Northern Virginia vowed to fight the
proposed ban.
Lynne Breaux, executive director of the Restaurant Association
Metropolitan Washington, said that smoking is a matter of individual
preference and that there are effective methods, such as the use of
ventilators, to protect people from secondhand smoke.
If the ban is enacted, she said, patrons will no longer linger over
meals, cutting down on restaurants' profits and employment levels.
Not so, the anti-smoking advocates contend. They pointed to a July
report from the New York City health department, which found that
restaurants and bars have had a seasonally adjusted gain of 1,500
jobs since a smoking ban took effect there in March.
An online petition on the Smokefree D.C. campaign's Web site,
www.smokefreedc.org, has attracted 1,100 signatures since March, 700
of them from District residents, said Angela Bradbery, an organizer
of the campaign. The effort is being funded by a $250,000 grant from
the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and administered by the American
Lung Association of Delaware.
D.C. bartender Mike Ferens said that he supports the ban and that
many bar and restaurant workers are afraid to speak out for fear of
losing their jobs. He said his job has exacerbated the bronchitic
asthma he had as a child. "I've always had allergies, but I think the
smoke has made them 10 times worse," he said.
| 
