Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 21, 1991 TAG: 9104210225
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The Baltimore Sun
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
In one of the most ambitious gestures in his high-visibility assault on smoking, Sullivan is pressing President Bush to impose a flat, governmentwide ban on smoking in every building where federal civilian employees work - every facility the executive branch owns, leases, or temporarily uses.
The Pentagon is joining in the idea, too, and would allow military smokers to light up on base only in barracks, family quarters and recreational clubs.
The military part of the ban would apply only to bases in the United Staes and in U.S. territories, not abroad. But the civilian aspect of it would cover every U.S. facility here and abroad, including embassies as long as they were part of the executive branch.
The proposed presidential order would not force Congress or the courts to apply the ban in their buildings; but those branches, too, would be "encouraged to meet the spirit and intent of this order," the draft proposal says.
Under the plan, which depends on Bush's willingness to take a bold and hotly controversial step, government buildings would not have any smoking areas, not even separated rooms or lounges with their own ventilation. The only alternative for smokers: Go outside.
In its key paragraph, the draft presidential order reads:
"It is the policy of the federal government to establish a smoke-free environment in all work space occupied by federal employees. The smoking of tobacco products is thus prohibited in all such federal government controlled space, including space obtained on a use permit, nominal rental or rent-free basis."
That idea has been circulating in the government for two months, and various sources in and out of the government here suggest that efforts to kill the proposal have failed, so far. The Sullivan proposal is said to be undergoing "revisions" of an unknown scope; there apparently is no timetable for the president to sign, reject or modify the order.
Within the government, Sullivan and his supporters in other departments, including the Pentagon, are being fought by federal employees through their labor unions, by members of Congress from tobacco-growing states and by some departments - especially the Department of Agriculture.
Outsiders have gotten involved, too, with anti-smoking and health organizations lined up on one side, the tobacco industry on the other.
Some of the groups supporting the suggested ban, such as the American Lung Association, do not themselves advocate a total ban as the immediate step they think should be taken, although they do favor that as an ultimate goal.
They are willing to accept, as an interim move, the use of separate smoking areas with their own ventilation, which is an approach being taken by some government agencies and private companies. The suggested Sullivan ban would be more restrictive than that, however.
The tobacco industry fervently opposes the total ban, and is siding with federal employee unions' demands that the issue of work-place smoking should be negotiated at the local level, with each group of affected employees and their unions.
Walker Merryman, a vice president of the Tobacco Institute, commented: "This sort of Draconian meddling is indicative of a bureaucratic mind totally out of control. Rather than seek to circumvent the collective bargaining process and undermine employee morale, the secretary [Mr. Sullivan] should be looking for ways to increase job performance and productivity by accommodating smokers and non-smokers in the federal work place."
Accommodation, however, is not Sullivan's goal. In speech after speech, as head of the Health and Human Services Department, he makes it clear he wants smoking to stop.
by CNB