Panel Rejects Workplace Smoking Ban : Legislature: Opponents of Assembly bill say employers should have option of imposing restrictions. But backers of measure say nonsmokers are suffering unfairly.

SACRAMENTO — Despite testimony warning of the danger to public health from secondhand smoke, an Assembly committee rejected a bill Wednesday banning smoking in enclosed work areas.

Members of the Assembly Labor Committee voted 6 to 4 against the legislation, sponsored by Assemblyman Terry Friedman (D-Los Angeles), the committee chairman.

Friedman said he will seek reconsideration but conceded that chances look slim for passage of the measure this year.

He argued that secondhand smoke is the nation’s third-ranking preventable cause of death, after alcohol and smoking. He said it results in an estimated 50,000 deaths a year nationwide.

“Some day soon, whether it is this year or next year or the year 2000,” the assemblyman said, “there is going to come a time in this state that smoking is going to be banned in the workplace.

“I say the sooner the better because the sooner we do it the more lives we are going to save. And those lives may be our own.”

But opponents, including representatives of the Tobacco Institute and the California Manufacturing Assn., said employers should have the option of setting up smoking and nonsmoking areas, and many have done so.

“There is too much state governmental regulation now,” said Willie Washington of the manufacturers’ group. “This bill goes too far.”

Representatives of the American Heart Assn. and the California Restaurant Assn. spoke in favor of the measure.

Dian Kiser of the heart association said statistics show the majority of Californians are nonsmokers and deserve to be protected against the dangers of secondhand smoke. “Unfortunately,” Kiser said, “there are industries that care more about selling things and making money than they care about our collective health.”

Jo Linda Thompson, legal counsel for the restaurant group, said it preferred to see a statewide workplace smoking ban in place of the more than 200 separate anti-smoking ordinances that have been adopted by cities and counties.

“We want one rule statewide,” Thompson said. “The 200 local ordinances are inconsistent. We want one rule that everyone understands.”

Representatives of the American Lung Assn. and the California Labor Federation AFL-CIO also supported the measure.

One of the few smokers on the Assembly panel, Assemblyman Richard Floyd (D-Carson), a no vote, lighted a Pall Mall and puffed away during the committee hearing.

Voting yes on the Friedman bill were the author, Assemblywomen Marguerite Archie-Hudson (D-Los Angeles) and Barbara Lee (D-Oakland), and Assemblyman Johan Klehs (D-Castro Valley).

Votes against were cast by Assemblymen B.T. Collins (R-Carmichael), Floyd, Paul Horcher (R-Hacienda Heights), David Kelley (R-Hemet), Curtis Tucker Jr. (D-Inglewood) and Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks).

Assemblywoman Sally Tanner (D-Baldwin Park), another committee member, was absent and did not vote.

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