Senate has not yet taken action on smoking ban bill
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The smoke still has not cleared between the Michigan House and Senate on whether state residents should be allowed to enjoy cigarettes while dining.
It has been six months since the Michigan House passed a statewide smoking ban for public places, such as restaurants and bars, and the Senate still has not picked up the bill, which exempts casinos and cigar bars. Some representatives still are pushing for the Senate to take action on the bill, but experts said disagreement between the two houses could mean the Senate might not pick it up at all.
“Having just finished up the budget process, we are looking at our agenda for the upcoming year and we haven’t had any discussion of how we will address the smoking ban,” said Matt Marsden, spokesman for Sen. Majority Leader Mike Bishop, R-Rochester.
The Senate passed a smoking ban with no exemptions in 2008, but the House never picked up that bill, he said.
“If there is going to be a smoking ban, we don’t believe there should be carve-outs for certain establishments,” Marsden said.
But exempting casinos and cigar bars would create a “middle ground,” and 99 percent of public establishments still would be smoke free without negatively impacting the casinos of Detroit, said state Rep. Lee Gonzales, D-Flint.
“In the … days that we have before the end of the year, there are a lot of folks that want to get this smoking ban on the books in some form,” Gonzales said.
But the Senate’s lack of action suggests it might not pick up the House Bill at all, said Bill Ballenger, editor and publisher of Inside Michigan Politics.
After a bill is voted on in one legislative house, it has two legislative years to be passed in the other house. The Senate has until December 2010 to take action on this bill, Ballenger said.
“The suspicion is that the Senate doesn’t really want this bill,” he said.
Some students said they think an across-the-board ban is the only fair option.
“I feel like no smoking should be allowed in any public place,” public health graduate student Mariana Wong said. “(Allowing smoking) really excludes people who have some (health) predispositions.”
As long as the ban would include all bars and restaurants, business wouldn’t suffer, said Eric Skusa, general manager at The Peanut Barrel Restaurant, 521 E. Grand River Ave., which allows smoking.
“You just have to make plans and live with it,” he said. “You’ll have a downturn at first, and hopefully, it will come back.”
But executive director of the Michigan Licensed Beverage Association Lance Binoniemi said passing this would come at a time when the Michigan hospitality industry already is struggling.
“This is only going to make it worse — it could cost jobs,” Binoniemi said.
Commentary
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Donald Salberg
(11/17/09 10:48pm)Report
As a physician allow me to remind our state senators that cigarette smoking remains an important cause for lung and other cancers and many diseases including lung (emphysema) and heart (coronary artery disease). Treatment of smoking-related illness contributes considerably to the cost of medical care. Second hand smoke causes similar diseases, endangering the healths of non-smoking patrons AND EMPLOYEES of restaurants, bars and casinos. With employment difficult to find in our economy most employees will accept reluctantly working in a smoking environment rather than not working at all. Customers will continue to visit restaurants and bars even if they have to smoke outside. Do Right! Pass the law!
Bob
(11/18/09 10:42am)Report
These smoking bans will probably go down in history as one of the greatest marketing scams ever by having drug companies using tax exempt political action committees calling themselves “charities”.
Here’s the beginning of the latest ban movement in the USA.
www.rwjf.org/pr/product.jsp?ia=143&id=14912
Here are the instructions from Johnson and Johnsons’ (makers of cessation products) RWJ Foundation for their tax exempt political action committees. (charities?) Note on page seven the “inside-out” provision, banning smoking on patios AFTER business owners spend thousands to build them for their smoking customers, clearly showing that they have ABSOLUTLY NO CONCERN for local issues or businesses.
Also note on the last page, they are instructed to keep returning every year until ALL exemptions, are gone. You may need to CTRL and scroll to readi it.
www.no-smoke.org/pdf/CIA_Fundamentals.pdf
Harv
(11/18/09 12:55pm)Report
I find it interesting that anti smokers never bother to research car exhaust and it’s effects.
Considering how often people walk in traffic, jog in traffic, and the time spent in your car with your air intake pointed directly at the exhaust pipe of the car directly in front of you, it’s a wonder that there isn’t more outrage from public health “advocates”.
But I guess if you can’t see it and can’t smell it, then it’s not there.
But wait, here’s a test! Let’s say the average human lung exhalation is 3 liters and you respire 20 times a minute. That’s 60 liters of expiration (these are really vague numbers).
On the other hand lets say the average car has a 2 liter, 4 cylinder engine and is running at 1500 rpms. So every time the engine makes one revolution, one cylinder is exhausting, or .5 liters of exhaust. Multiply .5 by 1500, and that’s 750 liters of exhaust. Per minute. Per car.
So next time your out and about, look to see how many smokers you there are carelessly exhaling, and then count the cars all exhausting just as carelessly and then decide which is a bigger health concern.
You can test this yourself at home. Lock yourself in a garage with a smoker. Lock a friend in a garage with a running car. See which one dies first.
Jake
(11/18/09 1:15pm)Report
This sounds like socialism to me. Since when has smoking been a huge issue till now??? It just seems to me that the government is trying to get involved in our lives even more then they already are…So to beat the bans I think people need the following.
http://www.Crown7.com
Rashid
(11/18/09 3:42pm)Report
This doesn’t really matter, since people will just smoke whitecloudecigoutlet.com if a ban does go through. (I.e., it woun’t really matter to e-cigarette smokers.)