BY ALAN PITTMAN
Blowing Smoking
Council coughs up crack-down on
bogus ‘outdoor’ smoking areas.
F
our years ago the City Council
passed a public health measure pro-
hibiting smoking in all public places
and places of employment including bars
and restaurants.
But city staff administering the ordi-
nance then created a huge loophole. They
allowed businesses to create new “outdoor”
smoking areas that were enclosed by roofs
and walls enclosing 75 percent of the sides,
with screens often allowed on the remaining
openings.
Within a few years, bars and restaurants
established at least 40 such “outdoor”
enclosures. The doctors and other public
health advocates that pushed for the original
smoking ban complained the new law had
been subverted.
Last month council progressives narrow-
ly voted to pursue changes in the law that
would largely do away with the outdoor
smoking enclosures and restore the law’s
original intent to protect employees and
patrons from secondhand smoke.
The council voted 5-4 to require roofed
outdoor smoking areas to be 75 percent
open on the sides and unscreened. Mayor
Kitty Piercy and Councilors Andrea Ortiz,
David Kelly, Bonny Bettman and Betty
Taylor voted to require existing structures to
meet the new requirements within one year.
Councilors Gary Papé, Jennifer
Solomon, Chris Pryor and George Poling
opposed the public health measure, arguing
that existing smoking areas should be
exempt and that new structures should be
only 50 percent enclosed on the sides.
Bettman said it was unfortunate the staff
didn’t follow the council’s intent in 2001.
“Right now the standard is if you’ve got a
couple windows and open them, that’s con-
sidered a smoking area.”
But Papé questioned whether there was
much of a problem, arguing that few had
there are children but opposes banning
smoking in taverns. “It’s legal.”
Although it was proposed weeks earlier,
Pryor complained that the 75 percent open
requirement was “boom, out of the blue.”
Councilor Poling argued for grandfa-
thering in existing smoking areas. “I
oppose the principal of making people
change.”
But Bettman said the city should “level
the playing field” between new smoking
areas and old areas and not grandfather in
businesses.
The council majority did pass a measure
providing $15,000 worth of subsidized per-
mit fees for businesses changing their exist-
ing structures within the one-year grace
period.
Kelly pointed out that in some cases the
Secondhand smoke kills thousands of
Americans each year, causing asthma, lung
cancer, heart disease, bronchitis and other
ailments, scientific studies have shown.
complained. Responding to complaints, the
city has issued 30 compliance orders and 12
fines to bars and restaurants for failing to
comply with the old rules since 2001.
Papé said, “I haven’t seen any clear and
convincing evidence” that there’s a prob-
lem with secondhand smoke in the
enclosed smoking areas. Papé said he’d like
smoking banned in cars and homes where
businesses proposed for grandfathering had
deliberately pursued loopholes to avoid the
smoking ban. Kelly said he wasn’t willing
to “play Santa Claus endlessly” to such
businesses.
Piercy said opening the smoking areas
was needed. “We are being told by our
county health department that we need to
address this issue.”
Ortiz agreed, “I would err on the side of
safety.”
Bettman said that many bar and tavern
workers, some single moms risking their
jobs, had come “courageously” forward in
2001 to call for the employee safety meas-
ure.
Business owners have long complained
that the smoking ban would hurt their
incomes and wasn’t necessary. But Bettman
said, “the medical experts have been very
articulate and firm that secondhand smoke
is a killer.”
Secondhand smoke kills thousands of
Americans each year, causing asthma, lung
cancer, heart disease, bronchitis and other
ailments, scientific studies have shown. The
smoke contains more than 4,000 chemicals,
including 69 known carcinogens such as
formaldehyde, lead, arsenic, benzene, and
radioactive polonium 210, according to the
American Lung Association (ALA).
Independent, objective studies have
repeatedly shown that anti-smoking laws
don’t hurt and may in fact help businesses.
A recent report by the city of New York
showed that since a new smoking ban went
into effect, restaurant business receipts and
employment increased and the ban was sup-
ported by most New Yorkers.
A 2004 Zagat survey polled 30,000 New
York restaurant-goers and found, by a 6-1
margin, people said they were eating out
more often because of the ban. Zagat report-
ed, “The city’s recent smoking ban, far from
curbing restaurant traffic, has given it a
major lift.”
ew
23rd Annual Lane County
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October 13 - 16
Lane County Fairgrounds
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OCTOBER 13, 2005 11