State Legislators Seek To Amend Pa. Smoking Ban Legislation

State legislators Chelsea Wagner and Dan Frankel are introducing three versions of legislation that will amend the statewide smoking ban that goes into effect Thursday.

They say the current version in Allegheny County is unfair to small business owners.

“The most glaring loophole is the one that requires some bars and restaurants to comply with the law while others do not have to,” said Rep. Chelsea Wagner, D-Beechview.

Under the smoking ban, any restaurant that makes 20 percent or less of its revenue from food sales may remain a smoking establishment.

Rep. Dan Frankel, D-Squirrel Hill, said, “It seems to be…not constitutional.”

Pennsylvania's smoking ban takes effect Thursday -- 90 days after it was signed into law on June 13.

"We're confident that business owners are prepared," state Health Department spokeswoman Holli Senior said.

Pennsylvania joins 32 other states with legislation on the books to forbid smoking in most workplaces and public spaces, from restaurants and train stations to office buildings and sports arenas. Businesses or people who break the law would face fines of up to $250 for a first offense and up to $1,000 for repeat offenders.

The compromise measure, the product of a drawn-out battle at the Capitol, does not go as far as most of the other state bans. It includes a string of complicated exemptions -- so many that the American Lung Association declined to give the law its endorsement.

Even with the new law, smokers in Pennsylvania may be able to continue lighting up in some hotel rooms, private clubs, casinos, nursing homes and bars where food accounts for no more than 20 percent of annual sales.

The city of Philadelphia, however, has its own more restrictive ban.

"Any time you have exemptions, they detract from the strength of the law," said Deborah Brown, spokeswoman for the American Lung Association. "They create confusion when you're trying to introduce and implement the law ... and they leave individuals unprotected from secondhand smoke."

Although implementing a smoking ban is a clear improvement over doing nothing, Brown said, "We will continue to work on this till those gaps are closed."

Senior said that health officials have been working with state restaurant and tavern associations and other groups representing businesses affected by the smoking ban to make sure everyone's clear on what is and isn't allowed.

The Health Department also has produced information packets for businesses that explain the ban, address frequently asked questions, and provide tips for how to tell patrons about the change. Online, it has made available downloadable "No Smoking" signs.

The agency has received good feedback from businesses, she said, and is receiving calls on its hot line. "We know people are reading the law and they get it," she said.

The toll-free hot line for specific questions about the law or complaints about noncompliant businesses is 877-835-9535.

There won't be compliance officers monitoring businesses, so health officials are counting on the public to report people or places violating the ban, she said.

Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia have what the lung association categorizes as comprehensive bans, which effectively outlaw smoking in all public places with few or no exceptions.

Smokers' rights groups say such bans amount to government infringement on personal choice, and they question the veracity of reports connecting exposure to secondhand smoke with increased risks of lung cancer, heart disease and other ailments. Some bar and restaurant owners also fear that prohibiting their customers from smoking will hurt their business.

Public health advocates say that smoking bans can curb health care costs, protect the health of bar and restaurant workers and their nonsmoking patrons, and provide incentive for smokers to quit.

The Pennsylvania law is unusual because it prevents municipalities and counties from enacting their own stricter rules, Brown said. Philadelphia's more restrictive smoking ban, the only active local smoking ordinance in the state, was permitted to remain as is.