State eyes tighter limits on smoking

OLYMPIA – If what his doctors say is true, sometime later this year, John McDaniel will die of lung cancer.

So it was no small thing for the Spokane restaurateur and former marathon runner – a nonsmoker – to go to Olympia this week to ask state lawmakers to ban smoking in public places.

His reasoning was simple.

“Smoking causes cancer; cancer causes death,” McDaniel told a Senate committee Wednesday morning.

Following in the footsteps of California, Massachusetts and Idaho, Washington lawmakers are considering tighter limits on smoking. “Smoking or non?” would no longer be an option at restaurants.

Health groups want to flatly ban anyone from lighting up in most public places. Under Senate Bill 5592, the shrinking number of smokers’ havens – bars, bowling alleys, restaurant smoking sections – would be havens no more. Owners or managers who let patrons smoke there could face a fine of up to $500.

At least eight states have such bans: California, Delaware, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New York, Rhode Island and Florida. Idaho’s ban is more limited, with lawmakers still grappling over what to do with bars.

A similar bill is slated for a hearing in the House today. House and Senate leaders said Wednesday they’re not sure whether the bills will pass.

“I do believe there are people in all the caucuses who feel strongly (in favor of) a total ban,” said Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane. “I don’t know if that adds up to what it takes to get there.”

House Majority Leader Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam, said she wouldn’t vote for a complete ban.

“I’ll protect children but I’m not going to protect adults. You’re all big people,” she told reporters.

Proponents of the ban paint it as a workers’ rights issue. State law already bans smoking in offices and many other public places, they point out. But for many waiters, bartenders and bowling alley workers, earning their paycheck means breathing other people’s smoke.

“We are damaging the health of these employees,” said bill sponsor Sen. Rosemary McAuliffe, D-Bothell. “It’s not fair for them to have to choose between their health and a job.”

“It (smoke) is a hazardous deadly substance, just like asbestos, strychnine or anything else,” said Roger Valdez, with Public Health of Seattle/King County. In King County, he said, 85 percent of the public are nonsmokers. Statewide, that figure is 78 percent, according to the Lung Association.

But some lawmakers say it’s not government’s place to tell entrepreneurs how to run their businesses. It doesn’t help workers any, they say, if a smoking ban drives their employer out of business.

“I hate these bills,” said Sen. Brad Benson, R-Spokane. Smoking “should be up to the owner making a business decision.” After all, he said, owners invest the $500,000 or so it takes to start a typical restaurant, and should be allowed to tailor their businesses to the clientele.

Trying to stave off such a ban, some bar and restaurant owners are floating an alternative. Called SB 5909, it would let card rooms, lounges and bingo halls declare themselves an entirely smoking facility. Bars, restaurants and tobacco sellers already can do this. No one under 18 would be allowed in.

For places with smoking sections, the bill would require walls and ventilation to prevent smoky air from spilling into nonsmoking areas.

“This bill would protect kids from secondhand smoke,” Washington Restaurant Association lobbyist Anthony Anton told lawmakers. “…Compromise is good. Protect kids today.”

The industry-backed bill also contains a clause that state Secretary of Health Mary Selecky called “particularly worrisome.” It would prevent local cities or counties from passing tougher restrictions. That’s intended to prevent battles like the one in Pierce County last year, when the county health department banned smoking in restaurants and bars. Protests and a court fight ensued, and the state Supreme Court ruled this month that Pierce County health officials exceeded their authority.

“Tobacco is not an illegal product,” said Sen. Alex Deccio, R-Yakima, who sponsored the restaurant-backed bill. Prohibition didn’t work for alcohol, he said, and it’s not going to work for cigarettes.

Maybe not, but smoking foes say they’ll take the ban directly to voters if lawmakers don’t approve it. They’ve filed Initiative 901, which would prohibit smoking in bars, eateries and other places – as well as within 25 feet of doors, windows or ventilation ducts.

“We have signature-gatherers in place, getting signatures at community festivals,” said Nick Federici, a Lung Association lobbyist. A similar try failed last year due to a late start on signature-gathering, he said. This time, they started early.

Foes of further restrictions on smoking say that the ban bill or the initiative would drive smokers and their business right into the arms of businesses that state law can’t touch: those located on Indian reservations.

Customers “can go right across the street, to a tribal casino, and smoke themselves to death,” said Deccio.

To underscore that point, Linda Matson, a lobbyist for entertainment and hospitality companies, handed lawmakers maps showing two dozen tribal casinos.

And the draw of the tribal casinos isn’t just speculation, said Irene Mendoza, a mother of two who deals cards at Chips, a nontribal casino in Lakewood, near Tacoma. During Pierce County’s short-lived smoking ban last year, she said, she saw her tip income dwindle from $1,000 a week to $400 total in the first three weeks of the ban.

Some economic studies suggest that local business losses are short-lived. In Pierce County, health department worker Jim LaRue said, restaurant and bar employment actually rose by 300 jobs during the ban. Revenues were up 8 percent, and the number of such businesses also rose 8 percent. But those numbers don’t take into account the fact that the region was simultaneously recovering from a recession.

Anton, with the restaurant association, told lawmakers that the free market itself may ultimately stamp out most public smoking. Already, he said, 80 percent of restaurants prohibit smoking.

“Without government regulation, we’re already getting to where we need to go,” he said.