Making It Tough to Puff: N.C. House dilutes proposed ban on smoking, allowing some bars, restaurants to make choice

By: JournalNow Staff | JOURNAL STAFF AND WIRE REPORT
Published: April 02, 2009

Last night the N.C. House tentatively approved a watered-down version of a proposed law that would have banned smoking in all workplaces, including bars and restaurants.

The modification to the bill came after legislators recalled the wealth the crop delivered in North Carolina for decades.

"Folks, tobacco made this state," said Rep. Nelson Cole, D-Rockingham. "Although it's decreasing, we don't need to be kicking them in the teeth to the extent that we will with this."

Legislators voted 75-42 after Cole succeeded in selling an amendment that bars smoking in businesses that employ or serve anyone under age 18, but not other businesses. Smoking-friendly bars and restaurants would have to post that fact at every entrance.

The state's move came on the day that the federal tax increase on tobacco took effect, raising cigarette prices by 62 cents a pack. That's enough of a price increase to cause smoker Natalie Cope to cut down from about a pack a day to a pack every two to three days.

Cope enjoys her Camel Menthols, but not so much that she is willing to spend $40 a week on her cigarette habit.

"It makes me look at other brands," said Cope, who stopped by Blue Ridge Tobacco and Candle Outlet.

The tax increase will pay for the expansion of a children's health-insurance program. And health advocates say it will encourage some people to quit and discourage others from starting.

Tammy Aldinger of Mount Holly said the price increase is the major reason she quit.

Aldinger said she recently spent almost $50 on a carton of cigarettes -- about $30 more than what she used to pay. She made the decision to quit with three packs remaining in the carton.

"I'm on the patch and I have quit," she said.

Health advocates cheer the tax increase, which is one front in their campaign against smoking. Last night, the U.S. House of Representatives was preparing to take up another -- a proposal to give the Food and Drug Administration the power to regulate cigarettes and other tobacco products.

"We cannot and we must not wait a moment longer to protect our children from this killer," Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., said last night.

Opponents contended that the legislation would hurt the economy and that the FDA wasn't up to the job.

"The last thing we should be doing is force the FDA to regulate an inherently dangerous product," said Rep. Steve Buyer, R-Ind.

Last night North Carolina supporters of the ban under consideration by North Carolina legislators said that last night's changes to the proposal negated efforts to protect waiters and other workers from inhaling secondhand smoke. The original measure would have forbidden smoking at nearly any business.

"It does nothing for the people who work in these jobs," said House Majority Leader Hugh Holliman, D-Davidson, the bill's primary proponent.

Rep. Rick Glazier, D-Cumberland, compared bar and restaurant workers toiling as they breathed an identified carcinogen with coal miners who knew that keeping their jobs could result in black lung disease.

"They had no choice in their jobs because those were the jobs that existed in their community," Glazier said. "Secondhand smoke injures and it kills, and the debate on the health effects is over."

Bill opponents argued that workers can choose whether to work where there is smoke, and that government has no right to make the choice for business owners.

"Tobacco has been a backbone of our state, and now tobacco may be a killer," said Rep. Leo Daughtry, R-Johnston. "We are becoming a nanny state for sure."

A final House vote is scheduled today, when it can be changed again. If approved, the bill would move to the state Senate, where further twists are likely.

Passage of the FDA bill was expected this morning.

Should the FDA regulation bill be approved by the U.S. House, it would still need Senate approval and President Obama's signature.

The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act would amount to the biggest change ever in the government's approach to tobacco, which has remained largely hands-off even as the health hazards have become increasingly clear.

Although the FDA wouldn't be allowed to ban nicotine or tobacco, the agency would be able to regulate the contents of tobacco products, make public their ingredients, prohibit flavoring, require much larger warning labels, and control marketing campaigns, especially those geared toward children.

Opponents said that the agency was already overburdened and couldn't handle the job of regulating another big industry. U.S. tobacco production was valued at $1.3 billion in 2007.