Legislature asked to relax new smoking ban

OLYMPIA – Some lawmakers are already seeking changes to the newly passed smoking ban, arguing that buildings where religious ceremonies using smoke are held and businesses losing money under the ban should be exempt.

Sen. Debbie Regala, D-Tacoma, decided to sponsor the religious exemption after speaking with one of her constituents, Storm Reyes, a Puyallup descendant who uses smoke in religious ceremonies in public areas not on tribal land.

Reyes, who voted for the smoking ban before realizing it could potentially restrict her practices, said the new law is a step back for American Indians, many of whom live in urban areas and not on reservations.

“The fact that I now have to engage in criminal activity to pray, it’s just wrong,” she said. “I don’t believe that was the intent of the people of the state of Washington. I don’t believe it was the intent of the people who wrote the initiative.”

Reyes said she uses various types of smoke for weddings, funerals, powwows at high school gyms, healing ceremonies at hospices – all enclosed areas where the public is exposed to the smoke.

“Although we might not get ticketed, we could,” she said. But “who we’re worried about are business owners who will limit us access” because of the ban.

Reyes said if lawmakers don’t offer a fix, she is prepared to sue the state.

Under another proposed measure, if businesses can show the state Department of Revenue they have had a 10 percent loss of income because of the smoking ban, they could pay a $250 fee to be exempt from the ban.

The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Bill Grant, D-Walla Walla, said it is a matter of survival for many small businesses.

“Those guys need a living, to support themselves,” he said. “I think this one is fair to the bar owners. It gives them the opportunity to make their case.”

The two bills show that while 63 percent of voters expressed overwhelming support for Initiative 901 – prohibiting smoking in places like bars, restaurants and bowling alleys – others still believe voters didn’t realize the unintended consequences of the measure.

“The people who wrote the initiative were counting on the health and safety of the workers,” said House Majority Leader Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam. “These workers may be healthy, but they won’t have a job.”

Kessler noted that, while she may be sympathetic to exemptions, it would be nearly impossible to do anything in the upcoming session, with the ban in effect only a month. To change an initiative within the first two years after passage would take two-thirds of both houses of the Legislature to approve.

“It would be incredibly hard to pass,” she said.

Sen. Karen Keiser, D-Kent, said she would give the religious exemption measure a public hearing before the Health and Long-Term Care Committee, but she hasn’t yet made a decision on the business loss exemption.

The law, which took effect Dec. 8, is the strictest in the country, requiring a 25-foot smoke-free buffer around doorways, windows that open, and ventilation intakes. Those provisions make Washington’s law tougher than those of the eight other states with similar bans. Specialty businesses like cigar bars and hookah lounges are not exempt in Washington, either.

First-time violators face warnings. After that, each violation is punishable by a maximum $100 fine. Offending businesses face suspension of licenses to operate and serve liquor.

“We would hope there would be very few, if any, attempts to change the initiative,” said Mike O’Sullivan, a spokesman for the American Cancer Society and backer of the initiative.

O’Sullivan said he hadn’t heard about concerns over religious ceremonies, but was willing to talk with people about whether there was a need for a legislative fix.

But he wasn’t interested in granting an exemption for business owners who say they are losing money.

“This law has barely been in place,” O’Sullivan said. “We need to give it some time to really see the impacts of it.”

But opponents of the ban say that businesses risk going under in the coming months.

“If I have to wait six months or a year, I’m going to be broke,” said Jules Grele, owner of Powder Keg Bar and Grill in Tenino.

Grele said that he has lost at least $6,000 in business since the ban took place.

“They said I’d get four nonsmokers to every smoker I lost,” he said. “That has not happened. They’re not here.”