Posted on 06/27/2002 4:02:48 AM PDT by JameRetief
Restaurants, in particular, can choose to be entirely smoking, entirely smoke-free or effectively smoke-free.
In the latter category, restaurant operators with seating capacities of 50 or more must allow smoking only in designated smoking rooms that are enclosed and ventilated so that second-hand smoke is not circulated into non-smoking areas of the establishment. Restaurants with less than 50 seats are exempt.
"These rules are fair," Keating said. "They are a substantial first step toward a healthier Oklahoma."
Richard L. Barnes, chairman of the Oklahoma Alliance on Health and Tobacco, predicted most larger restaurants would become smoke-free instead of building separate smoking rooms.
"It makes economic sense that they would," Barnes said. "They are not going to lose any business. They are going to gain the business of nonsmokers who have been avoiding smoking restaurants."
The rules also apply to bars, taverns and pool halls.
"I commend those restaurants and other establishments which have made the decision to eliminate smoking, but I also respect restaurant owners who feel their patrons want to smoke," Keating said.
He rejected proposed Health Department rules applying to restaurants with a seating capacity below 50.
"It would be financially restrictive for most smaller, mom-and-pop type restaurants to have to build smoking rooms to comply with these rules," he said. "It's best that we focus instead on the larger establishments at this time. The net result is there will be no restrictions on smoking in smaller restaurants unless the owner wants them."
The rules require bingo halls, bowling alleys, adult daycare centers, ambulatory surgical centers, birthing centers, malls and shopping centers to be smoke-free unless they offer separately ventilated rooms for smoking.
Hotel and motel lobbies and youth camps must be smoke-free. Indoor workplaces with 15 or more employees will have to be smoke-free, or offer separately ventilated smoking areas. Smoking would be permitted in smaller businesses.
Bob Clift, president of the Oklahoma Restaurant Association, has called the regulations. "unworkable, repressive and antibusiness."
The health agency must submit permanent rules to the Legislature in 2003 and they could be overturned. However, Keating and Barnes said that would be difficult for lawmakers because the public supports smoke-free restaurants.
Barnes, an attorney, predicted a lawsuit would be filed to stop the state from enforcing the rules, perhaps by an individual or group of restaurant owners.
Keating said the rules are not onerous and "if a lawsuit is filed, it will appear to be mean-spirited, I think."
The Oklahoma chapter of the American Cancer Society supports the regulations.
Keating said the Health Department will give businesses a sufficient amount of time to comply with the regulations.
Sen. Ben Robinson, D-Muskogee, praised the rules but said stronger anti-smoking restrictions are needed in state law.
"I'll be back," Robinson said of his efforts to impose stricter rules on smoking in public places.
CONTRIBUTING: The Associated Press
These rules make me crazy. We used to live in a democracy, where the marketplace made decisions on how to best run a business, and the profit motive would cause change, didn't we? So, let's say JoeX allows smoking, so JoeY opens a restaurant across the street and all the non-smokers can go there...hey, JoeY can even sell food from JoeX if that's what the non-smokers want.
But oh no, big health brother knows best. You will be healthy, you will not smoke, you must provide for health nuts who just in case they want to sit around all night, watch a game, drink beer eat fried food can sit there with JoeSixPack (think about it). Hey, AlfalfaMan...eat somewhere else!
I used to be a smoker, so people thought my view was selfish and didn't show concern for other's health (well, no, it's a survival of the fittest world). But, I still feel this way. Meals out were much more enjoyable when people weren't full time stuffing their faces with as much food as could be placed in front of them...more relaxing, more into each other, more social interaction. Government really should get out of people's faces and Health Board Nazis should get a life!
That is, restaurants that do not choose to be "smoking." A 1000-seat restaurant could choose to be "smoking" according to the way this story reads.
Um, shouldn't you people be finding that 'cure' for cancer instead of getting involved in politics?
Screw the ACS!
Then, let the restaurant's owners make that choice...it shouldn't be a government decision, it should be up to the marketplace...supply and demand and all of that.
And it doesn't stop there. In Massachusetts, Health Boards have gotten whole towns and cities to outlaw smoking in restaurants, and then use the argument that adjoining towns that allowed smoking should stop too because they were getting all of the business. Health departments dress kids up to look older than they are and if a store sells them cigarettes without checking the ID, they lose their license to sell tobacco. (Now, what would happen to a parent who dressed their child up to look older to buy something?)
And, I know, I know, this is Massachusetts, another world. But the rest of you are on the slippery slope, when government can tell businesses how to accomodate smokers and non smokers!
Just once, I'd like to find a place where I could have a martini, a rare prime New York strip steak, and a good Cabernet in a smokeless environment. No, I don't think I'm going to catch lung cancer from "second hand smoke." But to me, nothing screws up the taste of a fine wine more than cigarette smoke -- or worse, cigar smoke. That said, I'd much rather deal with the unpleasantness of smoke than deal with a nanny-state government trying to micromanage legitimate businesses.
Is Keating the real GOP? He's the kind of guy, who makes is almost impossible for me to support the GOP. There's no love of freedom, just authoritarism. How long, how long is he going to be Governor of Oklahoma?
No smoking in restaurants or other places of employment will be a Constitutional Amendment on the ballot this year in Florida. The Massholes from up north are ruining our state(while driving up real estate value).
Not yet, but they are making astonishing progress. They would do well to remember, that the pendulum swings both ways, stupid morons. Oh Well.
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