From: SMOKEFREE@compuserve.com
Date: Fri, 06/06/08
Please contact your PA Senator TODAY (at his/her local office) urging a YES
vote on the Smoke Free Pennsylvania Act when the Senate reconsiders the
bill next week (which could occur Monday). Contact information for
Senators is at http://www.legis.state.pa.us/
Following are the letter Smokefree Pennsylvania sent to Senator Mellow
today and today's Philadelphia Inquirer editorial.
Bill Godshall
- - -
Smokefree Pennsylvania
1926 Monongahela Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15218
412-351-5880
FAX 351-5880
bill@smokescreen.org
smokefree@compuserve.com
(via FAX) June 6, 2008
Honorable Robert J. Mellow
Pennsylvania Senate Minority Leader
535 Main Capitol
Harrisburg, PA 17120-3022
RE: Smoke Free Pennsylvania Act (SB 246)
Dear Senator Mellow:
As a follow-up to our June 4 letter, Smokefree Pennsylvania once again
urges you to support the Conference Committee Report (SB 246) on
reconsideration next week, and urges you to work with us next session to
replace local preemption with local control and/or to eliminate exemptions
for slot casinos, bars, clubs and/or other workplaces.
Had you and other Senate Democrats proposed (as an alternative) allowing
ALL local governments to enact stronger smokefree ordinances OR
significantly reducing the number of exempted workplaces, we would have
strongly supported your opposition to the Conference Committee Report.
But your alternative proposal would only allow Allegheny County and
Scranton (but not Erie County) to reenact their previously approved
ordinances, while preempting all local governments (including Philadelphia,
Allegheny County and Scranton) from enacting stronger ordinances (than the
Conference Committee Report) in the future.
Compared to the Conference Committee Report, your proposed alternative
would provide smokefree air to one additional slot casino floor and several
dozen additional bars. So while the Conference Committee Report would
protect about 95% of nonresidential workers from tobacco smoke pollution,
your proposed alternative would protect about 95.1% of those workers.
Meanwhile, Senate rejection of the Conference Committee Report is likely to
result in no smokefree legislation enacted this session. Smokefree
Pennsylvania cannot jeopardize the health of hundreds of thousands of
currently exposed workers for another year in order to achieve a smokefree
workplace for an additional one tenth of one percent of workers.
Once again, please support the Conference Committee Report, and please work
with us next session to repeal the local preemption clause and/or to
eliminate exemptions for slot casinos, bars, clubs and/or other workplaces.
Sincerely,
Bill Godshall
Executive Director
- - -
Smoke-Free Pa.
Take a deep breath, Senators
Philadelphia Inquirer (editorial)
Jun. 6, 2008
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/opinion/20080606_Editorial__Smoke-Free_Pa_..h
tml
The state Senate has rejected what may be the best hope for giving the rest
of Pennsylvania most of the protections from secondhand smoke enjoyed by
Philadelphians. So now what?
Well, the senators should take a breather - smoke 'em if they've got 'em -
then make a second attempt at approving the needed public health measure
they rejected Wednesday.
To do otherwise might set back for months or longer the long-overdue
efforts to put Pennsylvania in step with its neighbors. New Jersey,
Delaware and New York, as well as more than two-dozen other states, have
gone mostly smoke-free.
But for Philadelphia, the Keystone State for too long has been content to
be the ashtray of the Northeast.
Warts and all, the compromise smoke-free bill crafted by a House-Senate
committee on Tuesday would ban smoking in most workplaces and public areas
across the state.
In a key victory for clean air, the proposed state law would leave alone
Philadelphia's 18-month-old smoke-free ordinance. That means patrons and
employees at the city's two planned casinos will be able to breathe free.
There's no getting around the fact that the bill has exemptions that,
unfortunately, would leave many people exposed to the hazards of secondhand
smoke. That was the price of getting the Senate committee members to
approve the legislation. Even House members who were holding out for a
total ban agreed to go along with the compromise by an overwhelming vote on
Wednesday. Gov. Rendell also says he'll sign the bill, as a major step
forward in combating the ills of smoking. So now, it's up the Senate to
relent.
There's reason to hope that upstate and suburban casinos, many private
clubs, residential and treatment facilities, and even corner bars exempt
from the ban will embrace smokeless rules voluntarily once smoke-free
becomes the norm.
Rather than the exemptions, though, a key stumbling block in the Senate
Wednesday proved to be that the legislation would not allow other cities or
counties to take even tougher stands against smoking. Senate Minority
Leader Robert J. Mellow (D., Lackawanna) led the charge over this,
producing the Senate's 31-19 defeat.
No question, Pittsburgh, Scranton and other places should be allowed to
take more aggressive steps on smoking. Or the state could solve the
patchwork problem by just adopting a strong bill that copies Philadelphia's
successful 2006 smoke-free law.
But, as noted by the lead negotiator, Sen. Charles McIlhinney (R., Bucks),
the compromise smoke-free measure was a year in the making and it might not
survive if taken back to the drawing board.
It's significant that stalwart supporters of a strong smoke-free law - Sen.
Stuart J. Greenleaf (R., Montgomery) and state Rep. Michael Gerber (D.,
Montgomery) - agreed to support McIlhinney's bill. They understand that
Harrisburg policy is the art of the possible, not the perfect.
This is a perfect opportunity for the Senate to protect millions of
citizens from secondhand smoke, while giving smokers yet one more reason to
kick a deadly habit.
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