Senate OKs Statewide Indoor Workplace Smoking Ban

After a year of hard politicking, the state Senate gave its approval Thursday to a statewide indoor workplace smoking ban that could become one of the nation’s toughest.

The bill, which passed on a 22-9 vote, seeks to prohibit smoking in restaurants and most other indoor commercial and public buildings. But it was watered down during its tortuous path through the Senate and would allow smoking in bars and hotels, at least temporarily.

The legislation must return to the Assembly for its approval. If the bill clears the Assembly, it would go to Gov. Pete Wilson, who has not said whether he would sign it. His Democratic opponent, Treasurer Kathleen Brown, has also taken no position.

Assemblyman Terry B. Friedman (D-Brentwood), the author, said the bill is “good for the health of California workers and business,” even though it was softened from its original flat-out ban on indoor workplace smoking.

Friedman said he will bring up the measure quickly in the Assembly, where its passage is far from certain, even though the Assembly approved the bill last year.

Friedman said he “never underestimates” the strength of the bill’s opponents, the tobacco industry.

In the past week, lobbying reached new heights. Senators who opposed it pulled several maneuvers in an effort to derail the bill, either by amending it or sending it back to committees.

Charging that 38 pro-tobacco lobbyists were working on the bill, Sen. Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles) called for an end to the delaying tactics, saying the longer the vote was postponed, “the more they’re building their forces.”

Friedman--with his allies in the Senate, Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach) and Sen. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles)--lobbied senators in an effort to defeat what he saw as hostile amendments, including one that would bar cities from enacting local smoking bans.

Friedman’s legislation retains a provision that allows cities and counties to impose tougher smoking restrictions. Few local measures are as prohibitive as Friedman’s proposal.

Friedman, the Assembly Labor Committee chairman, portrayed his Assembly Bill 13 as a “workplace” safety measure, aimed at protecting the health of nonsmoking employees from the ill effects of secondhand smoke.

In the Senate, Friedman agreed to exempt some workplaces such as truck cabs, 65% of hotel rooms, hotel lobbies, hotel banquet rooms, large warehouses that employ fewer than 20 people, card clubs and designated smoking break rooms that meet as-yet-undefined ventilation standards.

The bill would permit smoking on movie sets where smoking is part of the production, tobacco shops, medical research facilities, nursing homes and businesses employing five or fewer workers in which each employee agrees to allow smoking but no minors are allowed.

The bill would allow smoking in bars and card clubs at least until 1997, by which time occupational health officials would have to come up with safe ventilation standards. If no regulations are developed, the ban in bars would take effect.

If it becomes law, California’s indoor workplace smoking ban would rival a proposal pending before the Maryland labor commissioner as the nation’s toughest. The Maryland measure would prohibit smoking in almost all indoor workplaces, including restaurants and bars, and contains fewer exceptions than Friedman’s bill.

A California initiative on the November ballot would override Friedman’s bill if voters approve the proposition. Sponsored by Philip Morris, the nation’s largest cigarette manufacturer, the initiative would generally permit smoking in restaurants and other establishments, and would bar cities and counties from imposing local smoking restrictions.