Blowing Smoke People’s Way : Assembly takes a perverse stance against public health

The state Assembly, in an act of brazen disregard for the health of Californians, has voted to weaken many of the toughest existing smoking bans throughout the state while denying Los Angeles and dozens of other municipalities their right to adopt tough new laws to regulate smoking in public places.

This retrograde measure would nullify the tentative approval given by the L.A. City Council this week for a complete ban on smoking in all dining facilities, and preempt action by other municipalities that are considering equivalent anti-smoking ordinances. Instead, all larger restaurants would be allowed to set aside up to 30% of their seating areas for smokers, while restaurants with fewer than 50 seats would be exempted. Similarly unaffected would be any business with 15 or fewer employees--the majority of firms in California.

The 43-33 vote in the Assembly for the bill, sponsored by Curtis Tucker Jr. (D-Inglewood), was achieved the old-fashioned way. It was bought and paid for by the tobacco lobby, which last year donated just under $1 million to candidates in California. A major recipient was Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, who in 1992 and 1991 was handed more than $221,000 by the tobacco industry to share out among deserving fellow Democrats. Overall, according to the American Lung Assn., the 43 Assembly members who voted for Tucker’s bill last year got $460,253 in tobacco lobby contributions.

The Assembly, unless it is a home for complete fools, has to know that tobacco smoke can kill people, and that every year some 3,000 Americans who may have never lighted up in their lives are made ill because of their repeated exposure to the toxins and carcinogens in the smoke produced by others.

The Assembly this week had a chance to enact a vitally needed complete ban on smoking in all enclosed workplaces. It refused to do so, cynically choosing instead to weaken growing municipal movements toward protecting the health of nonsmokers. This state will disgrace itself if its Senate and governor collude with the Assembly to make the Tucker bill law.