Law limits local smoking bans
A move to ban smoking in Allegheny County restaurants was extinguished Thursday after health officials learned a state law prohibits local governments from further restricting smoking in public places.
Allegheny County Board of Health members had said Wednesday they not only wanted to ban smoking in restaurants, but to possibly limit or ban it in bars and other places where food is served. They hoped to consider a draft resolution at their next meeting on March 5, if they had the authority to do so.
They don't. The state Clean Indoor Air Act of 1988 snuffed their hopes.
"The state law does absolutely preclude it, so we can't jump it," Dr. Roy L. Titchworth, the health board chairman, said yesterday.
The law established no-smoking sections in many restaurants across the state, but prohibits most local governments from further restricting smoking in restaurants, bars and public places.
Philadelphia is exempt from the law, and Pittsburgh's requirement for nonsmoking areas in restaurants, approved in 1987, was allowed to stand. State law says that restaurants with 75 seats or more are required to have no-smoking sections. Pittsburgh requires no smoking areas in restaurants with 50 or more seats.
Half a dozen smaller cities, including Erie, that had laws restricting smoking in restaurants had their legislation overturned by the Clean Indoor Air Act, said Bill Godshall, executive director of SmokeFree Pennsylvania. Godshall said the tobacco industry pushed for the state legislation that prohibits most local restrictions.
"I've been looking for a way around it for 15 years," he said. The only option, he said, is to try to lobby legislators to change the law.
He and others have had little success.
State Sen. Stewart Greenleaf, a Republican from Montgomery County, has repeatedly sponsored legislation that would have banned smoking in all public places in Pennsylvania, including restaurants and bars.
"We've not gotten much support for it. It's hard to get support for an out-and-out ban," Greenleaf said. His bills have not even made it to the Senate floor for a vote, he said.
Even so, he said he is considering pushing similar legislation again in the current legislative session, which began Wednesday.
Godshall intends to continue advocating for such legislation as well. He also said SmokeFree Pennsylvania is making slow progress as restaurants voluntarily agree to prohibit smoking.
So far, about 90 in the Pittsburgh area prohibit it, according to SmokeFree Restaurants of Southwestern Pennsylvania's Web site (www.NoSmokeDining.org), which compiles eateries that ban smoking.
The Board of Health's Titchworth is not ready to give up his fight.
"I don't think it's a dead issue," he said, but acknowledged he's not sure what else the health board can do. "You've got to mobilize the people who make these decisions."
Smokers are happy they can still light up at their favorite food and drink joints.
Cindy Owens and her sister, Karren Poore, both of Munhall, enjoyed a smoke yesterday after finishing off sandwiches at Primanti Brothers Restaurant Downtown.
Owens says she likes the freedom of lighting up in an eatery.
"In a restaurant, I'll wait a half-hour for a smoking seat before I'd take a non-smoking seat," Owens said.
The head of the 1,500-member Pennsylvania Restaurant Association, an organization that opposes a mandatory ban on smoking, said he is pleased that the county cannot prohibit smoking.
"It'll be interesting to see what happens next. … I guess the real battle will be in Harrisburg," said Patrick Conway, the group's chief executive officer.
Stopping legislation that pushes state-mandated bans has been among the group's top lobbying issues in the capital for the past two years.
Tim Hrehocik, 52, of McKeesport, a former cigarette smoker who still enjoys cigars, said it should be up to restaurant and bar owners to decide whether smoking is allowed in their businesses. "I think it's really ironic that they're going to ban smoking in a place where drinking is the biggest problem," he said.
