Action on Smoking and Health A National Legal-Action Antismoking Organization Entirely Supported by Tax-Deductible Contributions    Search  | Info About  | ash.org | To Join |  Email Page To Comment or Read Other Members' Comments, Click Here

Excerpts from: Groups push to outlaw indoor smoking

By CURTIS KRUEGER St. Petersburg Times[10/23/01]

Heart, lung and cancer groups have raised more than $1-million to get the issue on the ballot next year.

Worn red ashtrays line the counter and bluish smoke rises from nearly every booth. No one needs to say it out loud, because your nose and eyes inform you:

This doughnut shop is smoker-friendly.

But the atmosphere inside the Donut Connection would change dramatically if voters decide next year to take tobacco out of virtually every workplace in Florida.

In a first-of-a-kind effort, the American Lung, Cancer and Heart associations have joined forces and committed millions of dollars to push for an amendment to the Florida Constitution. It would outlaw smoking in just about every workplace except "stand-alone bars" and tobacco shops.

If voters approve this amendment, Florida restaurants no longer would have tables for customers who want to smoke while dining.

And nearly any other business with employees -- factories, warehouses, business offices or boutiques -- would be forced to ban smoking from inside their buildings, even if all the employees wanted to light up.

But proponents say they're backing the amendment because employees also ought to have a right to choose, too. If they work in a place where smoking is allowed, then they have no choice but to ingest harmful secondhand smoke, proponents say.

"Over the past three decades, there has been a mountain of scientific and medical research that proves clearly and unambiguously that secondhand smoke is dangerous and deadly," said C.J. Drake, spokesman for Smoke-Free for Health, the nonprofit umbrella group formed to lead this campaign.

"We're not telling people they can't smoke. We're just telling people, please don't smoke in a place where it's likely to affect the health of a nonsmoker."

Even though restaurants have nonsmoking sections, they don't really protect workers or customers from smoke wafting across the room, Drake said.

"We feel that there is no such thing as a nonsmoking section in a restaurant, that the real choice is between smoking and secondhand smoking."

Like other states, Florida already has taken steps to protect nonsmokers. The state in 1985 passed a law confining smoking to designated smoking areas in most public places. It also established no-smoking areas in restaurants that seated 50 or more people. That rule was toughened by the Florida Legislature last year. Now, 65 percent of the seating in restaurants, regardless of seating capacity, must be devoted to nonsmoking sections.

With those laws, "Florida sort of falls right in the dead center of the nation," said Matt Myers, general counsel for the Washington-based Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, which is supporting the Florida effort.

With the proposed amendment and its strict regulation of smoking in public places and businesses, "this would put Florida in the top third of the country."

Proponents expect an attack from the tobacco industry and statewide business groups.

"This thing is going to be a David-and-Goliath struggle, and we're going to be David," said Drake, of Smoke-Free for Health.

The coalition has collected more than 58,000 signatures from Floridians, but they need a total of 488,722 to get the issue placed on the ballot. Drake said he's confident that his group can accomplish that, partly through the use of paid workers collecting signatures.