SMOKE-FREE FEDERAL OFFICES? BILL WOULD PROHIBIT CIGARETTES IN CAPITOL

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, January 26, 1993                   TAG: 9301260072
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium
SMOKE-FREE FEDERAL OFFICES? BILL WOULD PROHIBIT CIGARETTES IN CAPITOL
The lawmakers who helped ban smoking on most domestic flights have a new target: federal office buildings, including the White House and Capitol.
"We really want the federal government to establish the model and standard to follow," said Rep. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who is working on the legislation with Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J.
The proposal also would apply to facilities that provide federally funded children's services, such as schools getting Head Start money.
The campaign against smoking is a personal crusade for Durbin. As a 14-year-old, he watched his father, a two-pack-a-day smoker, die of lung cancer.
"That has its impact on you," Durbin said. "My brothers and I made damn certain we didn't smoke."
Durbin believes a recent government report classifying secondhand tobacco smoke as a cancer agent more dangerous than arsenic or radon bolsters the case for additional legislation.
The Environmental Protection Agency report estimated that secondhand smoke causes 3,000 lung-cancer deaths annually in adults and as many as 300,000 cases of bronchitis and pneumonia in children.
"The conclusion is, we're headed for smoke-free buildings," Durbin said.
The General Services Administration, which manages many federal office buildings, allows agency heads to designate some smoking areas but bars smoking in most parts of its buildings.
But the Capitol, legislative office buildings, the Supreme Court and the White House, except for the East and West wings, are outside GSA jurisdiction.
The legislation being prepared would tighten the existing GSA regulation by allowing workers in federal office buildings to light up only in areas with separate ventilation systems so smoky air is not recirculated. Agency directors and office managers would enforce the policy.
The lawmakers plan to stay with the name they used on a narrower proposal last year: the "Preventing Our Kids from Inhaling Deadly Smoke" Act. The PRO-KIDS Act passed the Senate but died in a House-Senate conference committee.
The new version also would ban smoking in all indoor facilities that provide federally funded services for children under 18.
It would allow, however, smoking in areas that are not used to serve children and that have separate ventilation systems. Violations would carry a $1,000 fine.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB