ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, February 11, 1996 TAG: 9602090041
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: G1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Smoking
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON
The owners of restaurants and shops in Roanoke's City Market building recently voted where best to seat smokers, and the winner was: upstairs.
That dissolved an old policy of allowing smoking in the ground-level food court, where it's now off limits. The building permits smoking in its second-floor seating area.
Neon pink paper warning signs dot every table, a flashy color to ensure the change won't be overlooked.
The bold, clear signs are something of a surprise - and a credit to building managers F&W Management Corp. - as current smoking etiquette too often is a gray area, and fodder for conflict and confusion as smokers and nonsmokers try to coexist.
Downtown offices that sent smokers outdoors have in some cases been rethinking these policies, because people entering the office had to pass through an occasional gaggle of smokers. Some offices have revisited the question, and told their smokers to back away from the front door.
But that may not settle the issue. In the absence of ground rules, it's anyone's guess where a smoker must stand to keep his or her distance. Smokers can't be faulted for finding the closest, driest spot. But that may not square with those with sensitive noses.
To be sure, signs often leave no question about smoking rules in many public places, such as schools, hospitals, libraries, elevators, malls and jails, where it is forbidden to light up. The Virginia Indoor Clean Air Act and local mandates spell out the rules here.
But grocery store chains disagree over how the law applies to them.
No one disputes that smoking is banned in checkout lines and service areas such as the deli - places specifically named in the clean air act as being off-limits to smokers.
If you are in a Roanoke-area Kroger store, however, it is permissible to smoke everywhere else.
The Kroger policy comes under fire from an anti-smoking activist who maintains that customers have a right to smoke-free air as they shop.
"I definitely say that's illegal," said Hilton Oliver, executive director of Virginia Beach-based Virginia GASP - the Group to Alleviate Smoking in Public Inc. GASP gets its funds from member donations and Oliver, a lawyer, answers its toll-free phone line in his office.
Oliver said storewide smoking is illegal unless customers have access to "reasonable" no-smoking areas. The law applies only to stores of 15,000 square feet or larger, which includes full-service grocery stores.
It's unclear if checkout lines and service areas qualify as the no-smoking areas that the law requires. Oliver doesn't think so, and said a case several years ago resulted in a $25 fine against a Food Lion. That's the standard fine for violating the act.
The Kroger chain takes steps to discourage smoking, but allows it as an accommodation to smoking customers, spokesman Archie Fralin said.
To discourage smoking, the company puts a decal on doors that reads "Smoke-Free Environment" - even though current store policy won't create such an environment.
"That's as far as we feel it is appropriate to go at this point," Fralin said. "It is very difficult for us or any retailer to come up with a policy that is going to satisfy everyone on both sides of the issue. Our current policy is our best attempt to appease both groups of people."
On the other hand, Food Lion spokeswoman Chris Ahearn said Food Lion forbids smoking in its Virginia stores.
Even this can be a source of confusion for customers, however. A Roanoke Food Lion assistant manager told a customer on a recent evening that smoking was allowed.
Ironically, Food Lion corporate policy sees eye-to-eye with GASP on what the clean air act says about grocery store smoking.
"It's impossible for us to designate a no-smoking area in a large open store, so therefore in Virginia, we have no smoking allowed in our stores," Ahearn said. She said she couldn't confirm whether a store had ever been fined.
If the general policy in grocery stores is not-in-the-deli, it's look-before-lighting at Hotel Roanoke's Pine Room restaurant and lounge, where one's smoking rights depend on the whim of fellow customers.
Cigarettes are permitted, but getting the green light to enjoy a cigar or bowl of pipe tobacco depends on who else is breathing. It's fine if no one complains. But if they do, it must be snuffed out, said General Manager Gary Walton.
Guests may smoke tobacco of any sort if checked into one of the hotel's designated "smoking" guest rooms, and people can smoke cigarettes in the Regency Room, but all others are off-limits to smoking, including the entire conference center, Walton said.
With so many smoking don'ts in force, smokers' best bet may be to buy a windproof lighter and head outdoors - preferably out a back door. The Orvis Co. charges $58 for a nice lighter with a low, hot flame. At the downtown store, however, they were out of stock.
Could it be a sign of the times?
LENGTH: Medium: 92 linesby CNB