Feb 19, 2007 6:15 pm US/Central
Senate Panel OKs Smoking Bill With Added Loophole
St. Paul (AP) ―
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The bill was amended with a schedule giving bars deadlines for installing ventilation systems. (File)
CBS
Bars with ventilation systems designed to whisk away cigarette smoke could escape a modified statewide smoking ban approved Monday by a Senate business panel.
Another clause added to the bill would make the state's smoking policy trump local restrictions, potentially undoing strict bar smoking bans in cities including St. Paul, Mankato and Bloomington.
The changes passed by the Senate Business, Industry and Jobs Committee show the obstacles facing the Freedom to Breathe Act, whose authors aim to outlaw smoking in all Minnesota bars, restaurants and other workplaces. The bill has to clear at least three other Senate committees before the full body votes. In the House, it must survive a crucial business committee vote.
The Senate business panel spent hours on the smoking ban, struggling for a compromise that would mollify bar owners who attended three separate afternoon hearings over the past week.
Panel members voted 9-7 for an amendment from Sen. David Tomassoni, DFL-Chisholm, that would exempt all bars from the smoking ban until June 2009. After that, bars could let their patrons smoke if they put in ventilation systems to keep nicotine air levels under a certain threshold.
The deadlines for installing the equipment would range from 2009 to 2014, depending on the bar's proportion of sales from alcohol. Taverns with more than 80 percent of their revenue from alcohol would have the most time to get ventilation systems.
Sen. Kathy Sheran, the bill's Senate sponsor, said she hopes whatever becomes law won't include the latest changes.
"This amendment fails to protect the public health," said Sheran, DFL-Mankato. "Even with ventilation systems, there is not any guarantee that the places where we share air will through ventilation be able to remove the particulates that create the issue of secondhand smoke."
The committee voted down a proposal from its chairman, Senate President James Metzen, that would have given bars until the day after New Year's 2009 to comply with a full smoking ban.
(© 2007 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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