Wilson to Sign Strict Statewide Smoking Ban : Legislation: Restaurants, offices, stores, factories, hospitals and other large enclosed workplaces will be included. Tobacco companies are expected to take their battle to court.

In a major triumph for anti-smoking advocates, Gov. Pete Wilson announced Wednesday that he will sign into law a statewide prohibition on smoking in most workplaces that will make California one of the most inhospitable places in the nation for smokers.

Despite intense opposition from the tobacco industry, Wilson said he will sign the legislation today at a ceremony in San Francisco. It will be attended by representatives of a broad coalition of health and business interests who shepherded the measure through the Legislature.

For several weeks Wilson had hinted that he would approve the measure, telling a radio audience this month that “it’s (smoking) clearly not a thing that’s good for anybody’s health and the studies are indicating that secondhand smoke can be very harmful as well.”

But it was not until Wednesday that anti-smoking advocates got the formal word that the Republican governor was putting his signature on one of the nation’s toughest smoking bans.

“California is making history,” said a jubilant Assemblyman Terry B. Friedman (D-Brentwood), the author of the bill who had to outmaneuver the powerful tobacco industry to win its passage. “This will be the strongest statewide anti-smoking law in America.”

The law, which goes into effect Jan. 1, bans smoking in restaurants, offices, stores, factories, hospitals and other large enclosed workplaces.

Exempted from the ban are bars, hotels, warehouses in which 20 or fewer employees work, and businesses that employ five or fewer workers where all agree to allow smoking and where minors are not allowed. Also permitted is smoking in theaters and movie sets where smoking is part of the production, in tobacco shops, in medical research facilities studying the effects of smoking and in nursing homes.

Friedman and the California Medical Assn., one of his chief allies, insisted that strong public sentiment against smoking finally gave them the victory over the tobacco industry.

“Every time it seemed the tobacco lobbyists had killed the bill, the public rose up and turned it around,” Friedman said. “This is a classic case of David slaying the tobacco giant. They’ve spent millions and millions of dollars on lobbyists and campaign contributions to stop this bill and they lost.”

But he acknowledged that it still required compromise to pass. As the measure faltered at several junctures in the legislative process, he was forced to make concessions to push it along.

Disappointed tobacco interests called the new law a de facto prohibition against smoking and accused the governor and the Legislature of playing politics.

“(The measure) is clearly a statewide ban,” said Lee Stitzenberger, campaign director of Californians for Statewide Smoking Restrictions, a group promoting an industry-backed initiative that would strike down the new law and water down local anti-smoking ordinances as well.

“The governor and some members of the Legislature are clearly out of step with the public and have gone too far,” he said. “They’ve removed any element of choice on the part of the individual business owner on how he deals with his customers. It’s a Draconian measure.”

Friedman disputed Stitzenberger’s view, saying his measure not only had wide public support but also the backing of health organizations and business, including “the twin pillars of the tourist industry”: restaurants and hotels.

“This is a huge victory for the health of California,” said Dean Chalios, a lobbyist for the medical association.

However, not all anti-smoking groups were supportive of Friedman’s bill.

Kevin Goebel, lobbyist for Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights, said: “Looking at the bill, there’s awfully confusing language. Its effectiveness ultimately will depend on how it’s interpreted.”

Goebel said his organization fears that the tobacco industry will go to the courts to impose the worst possible interpretation of the statute--using the bill to overturn stronger local ordinances.

Friedman and other backers of the statewide smoking ban are braced for what they see as inevitable lawsuits.

“I would imagine the tobacco industry will do everything it can to defeat this,” Friedman said.

No state has gone as far as California in imposing a statewide smoking ban, according to Friedman and others.