Bill Puffs Up Designated Smoking Areas Would Require Enclosed Area For Smoking In Public Places
Designated smoking areas in public places may have to be separated by more than just signs if a new law is approved.
“It’s a very simple little bill,” said Sen.
John Andreason, R-Boise, the bill’s sponsor. “It just requires that you have a very concise, complete enclosure for a designated smoking area.”
The Senate Commerce Committee agreed to introduce the bill Tuesday afternoon. Under this legislation, smokers would essentially have their own rooms in public places.
Committee chairman Gordon Crow, R-Hayden, asked Andreason if the designated room needed to be “hermetically sealed,” to ensure a complete segregation. Andreason said no.
“It just requires ‘em to build a wall,” Andreason said. “It has no fiscal impact.”
Committee member Sen. Marguerite McClaughlin, D-Orofino, argued that “there might not be a lot of impact on government, but it certainly will have an impact on businesses.”
Businesses that choose to designate smoking areas would either construct an enclosed area for smokers, or, in the case of public places consisting of a single room, designate the entire room as nonsmoking.
Most public places provide a smoke-free environment, but there are still a few that do not. The bill would assure citizens the right to enter a public place without being “assaulted by offensive, foul, unhealthy smoke.”
Aaron Robb, manager of the Iron Horse, a downtown Coeur d’Alene restaurant and bar, said that people offended by smoke “can go somewhere else.”
Robb was angered by the bill and said, “Those goddang politicians can’t dictate how we conduct ourselves as a business. Our customers are the ones who tell us that.”
Robb said that the restaurant’s smoking and nonsmoking areas are 30 feet apart, and that “the smoking area does not infringe on nonsmokers at all.”
Andreason introduced the legislation at the request of Myran Schlechte, a former lobbyist for Blue Shield of Idaho. Schlechte asked Andreason to sponsor the bill because, he said, “there are more people every day who just can’t stand that stuff in the air.”
Schlechte wants lawmakers to “take another look” at the current law, which was enacted in 1985.