Speakes Clears the Air: No Smoking in Briefing Room

Presidential spokesman Larry Speakes, responding to a request from non-smoking reporters, formally asked White House reporters today to clear the air in the briefing room by putting out their cigarettes.

Speakes said he accepted the recommendations of the White House Correspondents Assn.--spurred by a vehement anti-smoking protest from ex-smoker Sam Donaldson of ABC News--to “ask you and your colleagues to refrain from smoking during briefings; also that the lavatories be considered nonsmoking areas at all times.”

He described the new rule as “experimental” and said the official response to the association’s request is “simply a ‘thank you’ for not smoking during briefings.”

Speakes added that the White House will study the ventilation system in pressroom work spaces, where some reporters routinely smoke.

And he said he is leaving it to reporters themselves to work out the concerns that nonsmokers have about seating on the chartered jets used to get reporters around with the President.

The seats are reserved but without regard to smoking preference.

Donaldson triggered the move with a Dec. 9 letter to the assistant building manager and to Speakes asking for no-smoking areas in the working areas of the pressroom facilities.