Statewide smoking ban gains support

State lawmakers in tobacco-rich North Carolina are headed for a showdown over smoking in public places.

Spurred in part by a request from Mecklenburg County commissioners, the General Assembly is considering legislation that would allow counties and other localities to regulate smoking on their own.

Or lawmakers could go further.

Hearings are set to begin as soon as next week on legislation to ban smoking statewide in almost all workplaces, including restaurants and most bars.

That proposal -- unthinkable several years ago -- is gaining strength, winning qualified support from the No. 2 cigarette maker, Reynolds American.

"Right now, the momentum is growing for any smoking regulation," said Sen. Bill Purcell, D-Scotland, a retired pediatrician.

On Tuesday, the House voted 113-4 in favor of a bill that would further restrict smoking in state and local government buildings. The General Assembly banned smoking in its buildings last year and, in a landmark vote two years ago, agreed to raise the excise tax on tobacco products.

All this in a state that continues to grow more tobacco leaf and produce more cigarettes than any other state in the country. Sen. Charlie Albertson, D-Duplin, says he put two kids through college growing tobacco, but might support a smoking ban for restaurants.

"I know a lot of good people who farm tobacco, but we've learned a lot about it. Smoking is harmful -- there's no doubt about that," said Albertson, who chairs an agriculture committee.

Tobacco's influence is waning for several reasons. A report last year from the U.S. Surgeon General's Office warned against breathing any amount of secondhand smoke. Also, fewer farmers are choosing to grow tobacco, lawmakers in favor of regulation have moved into leadership positions and leaders in Mecklenburg have made it a priority.

About 40 people from Smoke-Free Mecklenburg who favor tighter smoking regulations traveled to Raleigh to lobby lawmakers Tuesday. Barry Brush, a retired US Airways pilot from Charlotte who said he has seen two smokers in his family die of cancer, said a ban would improve health.

"Because the evidence is so strong that secondhand smoke is deadly," Brush said, "it is the responsibility of all smokers to use their product in a responsible way. It's as deadly as a gun or a nuclear bomb."

It is far from clear what lawmakers will do. Sen. Robert Pittenger, R-Mecklenburg, said that he doesn't want to burden business owners but that he favors local control.

"We micromanage everything in Raleigh," he said. "I'm for local autonomy in about everything except taxes."

Anticipating such support, Smoke-Free Mecklenburg is pushing legislation that would allow the county to regulate smoking. The General Assembly took away local governments' power to do that in 1993.

Whether or not lawmakers give that power back, the opposition to new statewide laws is thawing.

"We will not oppose a smoking ban statewide if it provides a level playing field," said Paul Stone, president of the N.C. Restaurant and Lodging Association, which boasts that its 16,000 member businesses employ 10 percent of the N.C. work force.

"That is a major change," Stone said. "We are not going to be out in front, we are not going to push for a bill but, if there is one, we will not oppose it."

Many restaurant owners say they favor statewide regulations because they would have the benefits -- including healthier employees -- without fear of losing business to a restaurant that allows smoking down the street or across the county line.

A bill sponsored by House Majority Leader Hugh Holliman, D-Davidson, a lung cancer survivor, would prohibit smoking in "public places and places of employment," including restaurants and office buildings. It would exempt some hotel rooms, nonprofit private clubs and a limited number of bars.

Steve Kottak, a spokesman for Winston-Salem-based Reynolds American, which makes Camels, said the company supports Holliman's bill.

"We have opposed such legislation in the past," Kottak said, "but we also recognize that the issue of public-place smoking is an issue of increasing public debate. So as we look at this issue, we want to support reasonable legislation, and we feel that this bill is reasonable."

A spokesman for No. 1 cigarette-maker Philip Morris USA, which makes some of its cigarettes in Cabarrus County, said the company opposes total bans but would not comment on Holliman's bill.

Holliman said his bill could have a hearing next week.

"The issue has risen in public consciousness, so I think the timing is very good," he said, "not that I'm thinking, by any stretch of the imagination, that it won't be a vigorous debate."