Putting Up a Smoke Screen : Willie Brown, tobacco pals join to block a ban on workplace smoking

The smoke swirling around the state Capitol is unusually thick this week. Competing smoking bills stalled Tuesday on the Assembly floor as Speaker Willie Brown, Assemblyman Curtis Tucker Jr. (D-Inglewood) and dozens of their tobacco-lobby friends tried their best to confuse legislators in order to block a workplace smoking ban sponsored by Assemblyman Terry B. Friedman (D-Brentwood). It appears that Brown, Tucker & Co. are doing a truly exceptional job.

The Assembly could reconsider both bills as early as today. For those lawmakers still reluctant to vote for AB 13, Friedman’s reasonable statewide ban on smoking in enclosed workplaces, let us help clear the air.

1) Cigarettes kill. They can kill those who smoke them as well as those who don’t but who must nonetheless breathe someone else’s smoke.

2) Nearly 80% of Californians are now nonsmokers and the incidence of smoking continues to fall. Not surprisingly, then, a new Times Poll finds that 64% of Los Angeles residents favor a restaurant smoking ban. So does the California Restaurant Assn. The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday gave preliminary approval to such a ban but the statewide ban in AB 13 is fairer than a patchwork of local rules.

3) A statewide workplace ban is good for California business. Employers who already maintain smoke-free work sites report that their employees are more productive and have fewer absences and lower medical costs.

4) There is no evidence to support fears that AB 13 will hurt tourism to California. The bill permits hotels to set aside rooms for smoking guests. And a recent survey of convention groups that met in San Diego found that virtually none would have canceled or changed their reservations if smoking was restricted.

5) A rival bill, AB 996, sponsored by Tucker and, tellingly, also by the tobacco industry is not reform. It was drafted as a stalking horse for AB 13. Tucker’s bill is not even good policy, since it merely extends the weakest existing local restrictions statewide and then preempts localities from doing more. AB 996 is a step back. Friedman’s bill, AB 13, is the necessary step forward.