Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 24, 1993 TAG: 9302240420
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BY GREG SCHNEIDER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
HOUSE OKS SMOKERS' BILL OF RIGHTS
Smokers may be scorned on airplanes, in restaurants and by the politically correct, but they're still loved in Virginia, where the House of Delegates on Tuesday passed a "smokers' bill of rights" and the Senate rejected several additional restrictions on public puffing.The smokers' rights statute, now all but assured of becoming law, would prohibit employers from firing or refusing to hire someone simply because that person is a smoker. Employers could continue to ban or regulate smoking at work, including charging smokers higher health insurance premiums.
"It just tells employers not to intrude into the private lives of their employees," said Del. Whittington Clement, a Democrat from Danville, where tobacco markets remain vital.
Other delegates warned that the bill puts smokers in a special civil rights category. "It elevates smokers to a protected class not enjoyed by any other part of the commonwealth," said Del. Jerrauld Jones, D-Norfolk. "If we pass this bill it's a black eye on this assembly and a black eye on the state of Virginia."
"Nicotine is an addicting drug," said Del. Harvey Morgan, R-Gloucester. "Why force businesses to hire someone who uses an addicting drug? [Smokers] miss more time at work, take more sick leave and are less productive than nonsmokers."
For more than 30 minutes, lawmakers railed against the bill and against smoking. They cited grim statistics - 425,000 tobacco-related deaths a year, consuming 6 percent of gross national product in health care costs and lost productivity, Morgan said - and they warned of dire consequences.
"This bill, as it is, will open up a whole new area of litigation for employers to have to deal with," said Del. Joan Munford, D-Blacksburg.
But there was a sense of fighting the inevitable. Tobacco still has tremendous influence in the General Assembly. The crop accounts for more than one-quarter of Virginia's exports, one lawmaker pointed out.
Tobacco interests also contribute significantly to state political campaigns; they gave more than $51,000 to delegates during the 1991 elections and more than $31,000 to senators, according to a campaign contribution database maintained by The Virginian-Pilot.
With the bill apparently unbeatable, several opponents tried to amend the life out of it. Only one change stuck: a disclaimer that the bill is not intended to be the basis for lawsuits by fired or unhired smokers.
Supporters of the bill fended off attacks relatively calmly, assuring skeptics that employers would remain free to prohibit smoking at work.
"Sometimes I wish we could go after salt the way we go after tobacco - overtax it and overregulate it," said Del. Willard Finney, D-Rocky Mount.
The measure passed, 64-32. The Senate will have to review the no-lawsuits amendment, but otherwise the bill will be headed to the governor for his signature.
In the Senate, members voted 23-16 to kill efforts to ban smoking in public restrooms and in grocery stores of 15,000 square feet or larger.
"We've known for 20 years that smoking is dangerous and kills 400,000 people a year," said Sen. Janet Howell, D-Reston, a supporter of the restrictions. "All we're trying to do is protect people from respiratory illnesses."
But opponents of the legislation said individual business owners - not the state - should determine whether customers demand no-smoking areas.
"This is a case of too much governmental regulation," said Sen. Richard Holland, D-Windsor. "Those people who object to second-hand smoke will not go into a grocery store that allows smoking."
While stripping out the grocery and restroom restrictions, the Senate agreed to outlaw smoking in licensed day-care centers and on private school buses, and to require designated smoking areas in private schools. Public schools and buses already had such restrictions.
Staff writer Warren Fiske contributed to this report.
Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1993