Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 4, 1991 TAG: 9104040527
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ANNE MORROW DONLEY
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The law does touch the work place - the government work place. It requires that all buildings owned, operated and/or leased by a local government or by the state government have reasonable no-smoking areas. This is in addition to no-smoking at the service and cashier areas and the elevators in private establishments.
For this reason, many local governments and state agencies have implemented policies on smoking. Any area may be smoke-free. Gov. Wilder made the entire third floor of the Capitol smoke-free.
Smoking is prohibited in the following areas: indoor service lines and cashier lines, hospital emergency rooms, elevators, election polling rooms, local or district health departments, public school buses, and common areas of public schools such as classrooms, hallways, libraries and auditoriums.
Ms. Poole is correct in that the law touches every enclosed building which has either a service or cashier area, no matter how small or large the business or agency - those areas must be posted no smoking. No one is to smoke in a designated no-smoking area, and that includes the person behind the counter.
No businesses are exempt from this. That includes tobacco stores. Confusion arises from the local government restrictions added by Del. Richard Cranwell, D-Vinton, which limit how protective of health the local legislation can be. The state regulations, however, do not exempt anybody except the Department of Corrections.
Tobacco stores must have no-smoking signs posted at their cashier and service counter areas, and they too can be smoke-free if they wish. Shopping malls are not specifically mentioned in the state regulations, but if they have anything like an information or service or cashier area in the enclosed area, that must be posted as no smoking. And, of course, all the stores and food courts in the mall are affected by the law.
Businesses with 15,000 square feet or more must have no-smoking areas, and these are in addition to the elevators and the service and cashier areas that are smoke-free. No businesses are exempt from this.
Restaurants regardless of size must have no-smoking signs posted at their cashier areas and any service counters. One with 50 seats or more must provide a no-smoking section, and must post a sign at or near the entrance to the restaurant stating that a no-smoking section is available. If the restaurant is smoke-free, it should post a sign at the entrance so stating.
Not mentioned in the article is that there are restrictions on providing smoking areas. Any building or area may be totally smoke-free. But if smoking areas are provided, then the law states that these cannot be so large that there is not sufficient area for no-smoking. For example, you should not have to walk through the smoking to get to the no-smoking areas.
The process of enforcement was not specified in the law effective July 1, 1990. It is therefore handled differently across the state. The General Assembly in 1991 missed by one vote a chance to provide a method of enforcement. The vote was overwhelmingly in favor of the enforcement provisions in the House, and Dels. Cranwell and Vic Thomas voted for the enforcement provisions. In the Senate it was defeated by one vote, and Sen. Granger Macfarlane voted against.
As mentioned, each county, city, and town is handling enforcement in a different manner, and some have not addressed it at all. Roanoke County has a recent local ordinance specifying that citizens may call the county administrator or the commonwealth's attorney to report a violation. Roanoke city and other nearby areas have not, to my knowledge, addressed this in spite of citizen complaints and inquiries.
The Virginia Group to Alleviate Smoking has free postcard-size forms that can be used to report the complaints to one's delegate and senator, as well as forms to send to the business or agency that is in violation of the law. This is a way of putting them all on notice that this law is important. An attorney general's opinion last October notes that citizens have the right to go to court to report a violation. This is laborious and time-consuming, but it works. The updated GASP brochure about the law describes the court process.
GASP members and other citizens have gone to court successfully to report violations. Several suits have already been filed since the close of the General Assembly session in February.
GASP members are also working to have the 1992 General Assembly place enforcement of the law in the hands of the state Health Department, where it belongs. Del. Cranwell and Sen. Macfarlane, as well as the tobacco industry, worked against this in 1990. More protections need to be given to citizens, such as requiring the private workplace to have no smoking, requiring educational and health facilities to be smoke-free, and so on.
Anne Morrow Donley is executive director of the Virginia Group to Alleviate Smoking in Public, located in Richmond.
by CNB