Anti-Smoking Bill Survives State Assembly Committee

Buoyed by intense support from the California Medical Assn., an anti-smoking bill banning the distribution of free cigarettes survived an Assembly committee Monday that many consider a burial ground for such measures.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach), still faces a battle in the full Assembly, where it could be scuttled by the powerful tobacco lobby, which has already sunk nearly a dozen other anti-smoking measures this year.

“This was our toughest hurdle,” Bergeson said after her bill was approved by the Assembly Governmental Organization Committee, which is chaired by an inveterate smoker and staunch opponent of smoking restrictions, Assemblyman Richard E. Floyd (D-Carson).

The bill would prohibit tobacco companies from giving out free samples in public places, particularly street corners and sidewalks, a marketing practice that Bergeson and the California Medical Assn. contend gets cigarettes into the hands of minors and starts them on a lifelong habit.

Last year, tobacco companies distributed nearly 97 million cigarettes in free samples throughout the state--more than three for every California citizen, Bergeson said.

Stopping that has become the top legislative priority of anti-smoking forces. “If the tobacco industry can succeed in killing this bill, we’re afraid they can put a crimp in the anti-smoking momentum sweeping across California,” said Chuck McFadden, the CMA’s director of communications.

Floyd said the bill was able to escape his committee on a 13-1 vote largely because of strong-armed lobbying by the CMA. The group, which represents 30,000 physicians in California, held several press conferences up and down the state in recent days to bolster the chances of Bergeson’s measure.

“CMA is the biggest money spender around here,” said Floyd, the lone dissenting vote. “This has been the big thing they wanted all along--and it’s happened because of heavy-duty arm-twisting by the doctors.”

But it wasn’t a complete victory for Bergeson and anti-smoking forces. Floyd’s committee also approved a competing bill sponsored by Assemblyman Gerald N. Felando (R-San Pedro).

Although the Felando bill would mandate the creation of no-smoking areas in restaurants and other public places up and down the state, it received the backing of the tobacco industry.

Tom Konovaloff, a Tobacco Institute representative, said the group “very reluctantly” supports the Felando bill and would serve as a “reluctant bridesmaid” as it meanders through the legislative process.

Bergeson and health-care officials, meanwhile, contend that Felando’s measure is a “bogus anti-smoking bill,” featuring restrictions that aren’t tough enough and would prohibit individual cities from enacting even harsher laws against smoking.

They also blasted the measure because Felando failed to consult with anti-smoking forces from the CMA, the American Lung Assn. and other health groups before he hatched the proposal late last week.

Felando, however, contends that the measure is “the most comprehensive and toughest” in the nation.

Aside from the smoking ban in sections of restaurants and workplaces, the measure would outlaw possession of tobacco by anyone under 18, limit the location of cigarette vending machines and restrict billboard advertising near schools. In addition, it would keep tobacco firms from giving out free cigarette samples in some areas.