Momentum is building among several metro-area communities to ban smoking in restaurants.
Denver and Aurora – the two largest cities – are joining the effort. If they are successful, the campaign could snowball, but a more logical approach to the issue would be to give state lawmakers another opportunity in the 2006 session to pass legislation that would avoid the necessity for a growing patchwork of local anti-smoking laws.
The effort in the 2005 legislature failed by a slim margin. Gov. Bill Owens has indicated he would consider signing a smoking ban measure, though he hasn’t said what such legislation must contain to satisfy him.
We urge the governor to weigh in next year and let lawmakers know where he stands. Failing that, lawmakers ought to refer a measure to the ballot or support a citizen initiative.
Non-smokers in Colorado vastly outnumber smokers, and a ballot measure likely would win support and apply to all cities and counties in Colorado, not just a few in the metro area. Restaurant owners aren’t in a panic over the prospect of a smoking ban. For every smoker they lose, they’ll satisfy or gain the business of non-smokers who might otherwise stay away.
This year’s legislative effort was a first approach to the issue. One version would have banned smoking in workplaces as well as restaurants.
The measure stalled over the diverse number and type of licenses under which restaurants operate and over which types of licenses should – or shouldn’t – be covered by the smoking ban. Politics also entered in because the chief sponsor, Sen. Dan Grossman, is a Democratic candidate for attorney general and some Republican lawmakers refused to support the measure for that reason. Grossman says he’ll step aside next year if that’s what it takes to pass a bill. Mark Larson, the Republican House sponsor, is ready to give the bill another try in the House.
The Denver effort, which would exclude cigar bars from the ban, is geared toward cleaning the air in restaurants.
A report by the city’s Environmental Health Department last year found that the air in some local bars was worse than the city’s smog, and in four bars the levels of pollutants were higher than the bad air generated by the June 2002 Hayman fire.
Restaurant employees exposed to second-hand smoke for one eight-hour shift breathe the equivalent of two packs of cigarettes, the report says.
The Colorado Restaurant Association prefers that businesses set their own smoking policies based on customer preference, but has indicated support for a statewide smoking ban in restaurants (but not bars) because it would level the playing field.
The current patchwork is putting some restaurants at a disadvantage with establishments in neighboring cities and counties. Retailers in small towns like Lafayette have been hurt by having a neighbor like Longmont without a ban, for instance.
A statewide ban is the answer.
