ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, December 15, 1996 TAG: 9612160069
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-16 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
An anti-smoking coalition says it plans to use the 1990 Americans With Disabilities Act to get more public facilities around Central Kentucky to ban smoking or provide smoke-free areas for patrons with breathing disabilities.
Although Kentucky ACTION - an organization made up of anti-smoking groups and the medical community - has no ``target list'' of facilities it wants to take smoke-free, it does have a test case in mind, said its president, Dr. Jim Roach.
The test case in the Lexington area would involve a woman with a severe asthmatic condition, but Roach declined to give further details.
``At this point we want to educate the public to the fact that this legal option is available to them,'' Roach said.
``We're concerned about the malls; it's a problem in Rupp Arena; it's a problem at the Kentucky football stadium, at the high school stadiums,'' he said. ``People have a right to breathe clean air. That's the bottom line.''
Only a few such cases have been brought nationwide, according to a Boston lawyer familiar with the disabilities act. One might have led to McDonald's restaurants banning smoking in its corporate-owned outlets earlier this year.
The federal disabilities law requires public facilities to provide wheelchair ramps and other accessories so that people with disabilities have an equal opportunity to use the sites. Under the law, failure to do so is considered discrimination against the disabled.
But Roach said a public facility also could be guilty of discrimination under the law if people with respiratory or cardiovascular disabilities can't enter them because of tobacco smoke.
``This means that if you're downwind from a smoker at a football game and your eyes start burning and watering, you can do something about it,'' Roach said.
According to Roach, the disabilities act could be used this way:
If a person with, say, severe asthma can't go to a restaurant or other facility because of tobacco smoke, the person would get a letter documenting the medical problem from his or her physician.
The documentation would then be given to the restaurant and, citing the disabilities act, changes would be requested. That could mean either creation of a smoke-free area, or an outright smoking ban, Roach said.
Under the ADA law, a public facility would have to accommodate the disabled person's need for smoke-free air, unless it would constitute an undue hardship. If the facility refused to accommodate the patient, the matter could be taken to court. But Roach said most cases probably could be resolved without going that far.
LENGTH: Medium: 53 linesby CNB