(AP) Lawmakers to debate smoking ban for restaurants
By WOODY BAIRD, Associated Press Writer
GERMANTOWN, Tenn.
January 22, 2007

Pausing over a plate of pork barbecue, Neil Harkavy gave two simple reasons he believes smoking should be banned in Tennessee restaurants.

"It's unhealthy, No. 1," he said, "and it doesn't smell good."

That pretty well sums up the feelings of many nonsmokers who will be watching the state Legislature this year as it debates how to protect people from second-hand smoke.

A new legislative session is under way, and lawmakers are expected to take up several proposals aimed at restricting smoking in public places.

Two of the most contentious issues will be proposals to ban smoking in restaurants and to give local governments the authority to regulate public smoking in their own communities.

Harkavy, having lunch at a Germantown restaurant, said he liked that idea.

"Local governments know more than the Legislature about what the people in their areas would like," he said.

Germantown, a Memphis suburb, is one of several Tennessee cities that have debated banning smoking in restaurants, only to be blocked by the Legislature's exclusive control over smoking rules.

Historically, anti-smoking critics have struggled in Nashville where pro-tobacco forces and their lobbyists are toughcompetitors. The American Lung Association, on a national report card rating states for smoke-free air, gives Tennessee an F.

Nineteen states have some restrictions on smoking in restaurants, the association says.

Proponents of tighter rules on smoking in public are encouraged by a smoking ban in state-owned buildings approved by the Legislature last session. And Sen. Paul Stanley, R-Germantown, said he will ask fellow lawmakers again this year to let cities and counties set their own rules for public smoking.

Smoking should be banned in restaurants, Stanley said, to protect the health of nonsmokers, including children, and to make dining outmore enjoyable for people bothered by cigarette smoke.

Stanley said he will not propose a smoking ban for bars, however.

"It is imperative that we clearly define the difference between a bar and a restaurant," he said. "I believe when you go into a bar, you know what atmosphere you're walking into."

A business that makes most of its money on alcohol is a bar, Stanley said, while a restaurant sells mostly food.

Such distinctions don't sit well with the Tennessee Restaurant Association, which argues that its members should not have to deal with smoking bans unless all other business in the state do also.

"We're businesses nodifferent from any other retail businesses out there," said association President Ronnie Hart. "Why do you want to single out restaurants?"

Hart said his group will also oppose efforts to give local governments the authority to set anti-smoking rules.

"We've got 95 counties in Tennessee, and if they all want to create their own nonsmoking laws and rules and regulations, how in the world are you ever going to keep up with all of them?" he said.

The Legislature took away most local control over public smoking in 1994 when it passed a law that was billed as an attempt to keep tobacco away from children and teenagers. The law also barred localgovernments from regulating tobacco use more tightly than the state does.

Germantown has pressed state lawmakers for several years for more authority to set anti-smoking rules.

Walker Taylor, owner of a barbecue restaurant called the Germantown Commissary, was a longtime and outspoken critic of the city's anti-smoking efforts, but he made his business smoke-free last year.

Taylor worried that a smoking ban for Germantown restaurants would send customers to his competitors in neighboring towns, including Memphis.

That hasn't happened.

"Business is up. I think people are getting more and more used to (smoking bans). Mostworkplaces now require people to go outside to smoke and I have no problem with that," Taylor said.

But Tayor still doesn't like government imposed smoking bans for private businesses, at the state or local level. "I didn't like the government coming in and telling me how to run by business," he said.

Taylor, a nonsmoker, said he banned smoking because smokers were trashing his restaurant, sometimes even leaving burning cigarettes on the furniture.

"I'm not going to have somebody burn the restaurant down," he said. "The smokers have nobody to blame but themselves. They don't have to clean up their mess. We have to clean their mess up."

Despite the optimism felt by some smoking critics, House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh, D-Covington, has said he expects a "pro-business attitude" to limit further moves to restrict indoor smoking.

Naifeh is expected to follow tradition and send anti-smoking proposals to the tobacco-friendly Agriculture Committee, though smoking critics say such measures are matters of public health, not agriculture.

Stanley said lawmakers will be faced with heightened public concerns over the health hazards of indoor smoking and recent moves by other states around the country to restrict smoking in public places, including restaurants.

"Clearly," he said, "second-handsmoke is dangerous," he said.

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