THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, November 18, 1994 TAG: 9411170216
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 18 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY GREG GOLDFARB, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Long : 241 lines
HILTON OLIVER SUFFERS from as many as 20 different allergies, including being profoundly allergic to tobacco smoke.
Retired Navy Master Chief W.E. Rambo lost his wife to cancer earlier this year and himself suffers from a lung inflammation brought on by years of exposure to asbestos.
The two men share an appreciation like few others for a city ordinance adopted five years ago that prohibits smoking in most public places. And each, in his own way, has become a vocal critic of those who would violate the law and those who, as they see it, choose not to enforce it.
City officials, however, maintain that great strides have been made in the war against secondhand smoke and that zero tolerance is an unrealistic expectation. They argue that it's akin to saying that just because there are laws about drinking and driving all drunken drivers will be caught and prosecuted.
Oliver's major complaint is lodged against the Kmart store near Pembroke Mall. He has filed suit against the company for $50,000 for what he says is their refusal to admit that it violated the city's anti-smoking ordinance.
``It's the law and we should expect full compliance with it,'' said Oliver, a divorce lawyer who said he became seriously ill after allegedly inhaling secondhand cigarette smoke upon entering the Constitution Drive store Aug. 14, 1993.
The case will be heard Jan. 30 by a Virginia Beach circuit judge and jury.
His campaign against secondhand smoke, however, extends far beyond that isolated incident. It began more than a decade ago when Oliver, 38, began publicly railing against local legislators as the former president of a Richmond-based organization called the Group to Alleviate Smoking in Public (GASP).
Upon even the ``briefest exposure'' to secondhand tobacco smoke, Oliver said his head begins pounding, he has trouble breathing, his nasal passages become irritated and inflamed, his eyes begin to water and itch and his skin breaks out in red spots. If exposed long enough to cigarette smoke, he said, he could die.
GASP, among other things, ``works to permit every non-smoking child and adult to access every enclosed public place, including schools and the workplace, without ever having to encounter secondhand smoke,'' according to the group's newsletter. ``If someone wants to commit suicide by smoking, that's the smoker's business. But no one has the right to hurt another person, and secondhand smoke kills at least 1,000 Virginians every year.''
GASP regularly monitors state lawmakers' votes on matters relating to tobacco, and other health-related issues.
While Oliver has worked with GASP on the state level to limit smoking in public, Rambo has been a one-man crusade challenging the city to enforce the law already on its books.
His feud began four years ago after he discovered that his late wife had trouble dining at certain local restaurants because the secondhand tobacco smoke present made her too ill to eat.
Rambo has a thick file of what he describes as evidence that anywhere from 10 to 15 restaurants across the city violated the city's no-smoking ordinance. He uses photographs, notarized statements and his personal testimony to back him up.
Over the years, Rambo said he has received little but grief from city officials, and from others, who try to confound him despite his clinically diagnosed manic depression condition.
Rambo has taken his concerns to the Virginia Beach Human Rights Commission and the state health department, among others. He has called for the resignation of several city officials, although no action has been taken.
Among them is Frank J. Scanlon, the city's environmental health manager.
Scanlon says the law works and that problems lie with some people's interpretation of it.
``It's not a big problem except for people who are disenchanted with the city's enforcement of the law,'' he said.
Scanlon says he personally has responded to the complaints about specific restaurants made by Rambo and found most to be in compliance with the law, according to a letter to City Manager James Spore.
Rambo has not been satisfied with the results of those inspections and claims officials are insensitive and callous to non-smokers' rights.
``I just don't think they (city officials) care about anybody's suffering,'' said Rambo, who regrets that he couldn't have taken his late wife out to dinner more often.
He vows to continue his fight.
The idea that the city could or would spend enough money to inspect each business or public facility to determine if they're complying fully with the no-smoking law is folly, said assistant city attorney Randy Blow.
Voluntary compliance has been good, Blow said, although he offers no statistics to back it up. He also acknowledges that problems still exist between smokers and non-smokers in public places.
``I don't fault Mr. Oliver or Mr. Rambo one bit for exercising the strength of their convictions,'' Blow said.
But Blow says that the city's no-smoking law was never intended to be the ultimate solution to satisfying the competing interests of smokers and non-smokers.
Blow was a member of a citizens committee formed in 1988 by then City Manager Aubrey Watts to help chart a course for dealing with the elimination of smoking in public places.
``The intent was to protect the interests of non-smokers, but to also not burden the smokers,'' said Blow about the law, which carries with it misdemeanor penalties. ``The No. 1 priority was public health, safety and welfare. But you also don't want regulations so onerous that they're difficult to comply with, from a financial standpoint.''
Before Virginia Beach's smoking ordinance was adopted, Blow said, the committee looked at a ``broad spectrum'' of existing ordinances in other cities, including Chesapeake and Norfolk, and, ``tried to incorporate into ours, the best of all those provisions.''
Since then, he said, the city has not faced any smoking-related lawsuits nor did the number of citizen complaints skyrocket after the law took effect in 1989.
``I don't recall, after the first few months of adoption, as you might expect, the opening of the floodgates, or a barrage of complaints,'' said Blow. ``What I do recall is a considerable level of voluntary compliance.''
Still, Blow concedes, everybody hasn't been entirely happy with the law, as evidenced by the 3,314 environmentally related complaints the city received during the last four years. Of those, 117 were smoking-related.
Settling for a voluntary compliance rate of 90 to 100 percentage on any given day is about where the city stands now, Blow estimated, and it may be the best for which it can hope.
``Would the city like to have zero tolerance of drunk drivers? Certainly. Does the city have the resources to ensure that? Absolutely not,'' said Blow, noting that the Virginia Beach Health Department and the Police Department are both responsible for enforcing the ordinance, but only during the routine execution of their duties.
The only way the city's smoking ordinance will enjoy a successful future, Blow said, is through good faith efforts by the business community, and by hearing from citizens who feel that their rights as a non-smoker may have been violated.
``That's the only way to gain compliance on something so sweeping,'' said Blow.
Some businesses have avoided any worries about compliance by voluntarily becoming smoke-free.
Angelo Serpe's Pasta e Pani, on Laskin Road, has been smokeless for more than four of the five years it has been open.
``If you want to enjoy your meal, you don't smoke,'' said Serpe. ``Besides bothering other people, it bothers me.''
Not wanting to alienate smokers completely, Serpe has two benches outside his front doors for patrons who want to light up. That way, Serpe explains, the smokers are happy, and the dining environment is enhanced by the smell of food, not the odor of smoldering leaves.
``In the beginning, we set tables in the corners so the smokers could sit there,'' said Serpe. ``But every night, there was never anybody sitting there. Once in a while we had a smoker, and it smoked up the whole dining room. Now, they go outside. They don't mind at all.''
One of those regular customers who goes outside to smoke is Anthony Genovese, a builder, Thalia Acres resident and devoted cigar lover. He travels the world, he said, and cigars are close at hand in many places. But he's learning that one of his favorite pastimes also can cause distress for others.
``I go to the Hotel Paris in Monte Carlo. When I finish my dinner, they bring me out a box of cigars. I pick my own out,'' said Genovese. ``But Angelo is a friend of mine. So if his rationale is, `Don't smoke in my restaurant,' I'm certainly not going to smoke.''
America's smoking laws are far too stringent, Genovese comments, and are too deeply steeped in politics.
``You go to Italy, Greece - kids, 12 years old, and up - they're all working on smoking,'' said Genovese. ``The big market for American cigarettes is Europe and Asia. If you're in the government, looking for votes, you make noise about something that's an issue.''
Down the road at Morrison's Cafeteria, associate manager Ron Labancz estimates that about two-thirds of his restaurant's 250 seats are reserved for non-smokers, and that's basically the way he, and the public, like it.
``This basically reflects our requests,'' said Labancz, who quit smoking in 1972 after 16 years of puffing as many as three packs a day. ``Smoking doesn't bother me as long as somebody's not sitting across the table from me, blowing smoke in my face.''
Labancz eats out often, he said, and finds it amusing how picky some people are about eating in dining areas that are divided for smokers and non-smokers, not by walls, but only by partitions and signs.
``I go to places and they ask me, `Do you want smoking or non-smoking,' and I say, `It doesn't make any difference, as long as you seat me!' '' said Labancz. ``I say, `Give me what you got,' and I'll have my meal, eating, while they're still waiting in the lobby for a `non-smoking' section.''
If forced some day to make the entire restaurant smoke-free, Labancz said he would acquiesce, adding that the whole discussion may become moot.
``More and more, we have less and less smoking area,'' he said. ILLUSTRATION: Photos by PETER D. SUNDBERG
Angelo Serpe's Pasta e Pani on Laskin Road has been a smoke-free
restaurant for more than four years, but there are two benches
outside for patrons who want to light up.
Hilton Oliver, who is allergic to smoke, is suing a Kmart for
noncompliance with the no-smoking law.
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No-Smoking Law
In Virginia Beach, smoking is banned in the following places:
All elevators, except in single-family homes.
All retail, service and financial establishments, which includes
department stores, grocery stores, convenience stores, drug stores,
clothing stores, shoe stores, hardware stores, banks, savings and
loan institutions, hair salons, barber shops, indoor service lines,
cashier areas, counter service areas, public restaurants,
health-care facilities, child-care facilities, indoor recreational
facilities, public schools, public meeting rooms, gymnasiums, movie
theaters, auditoriums, enclosed arenas, art galleries, public
libraries and museums and any similar cultural facility.
Smoking is also prohibited in any part of a restaurant, bingo
hall or bowling alley designated a ``No Smoking'' area, as described
by City Code, in buildings owned or leased by the city or the School
Board and used for public purposes, with the exception of lawfully
designated smoking areas; and in vehicles used regularly for public
transportation, including, but not limited to, transit buses and
school buses.
Smoking is not regulated by the city in the following places
and/or under the following conditions:
Bars and lounge areas, retail tobacco stores, restaurants,
conference/meeting rooms and public and private assembly rooms,
while these places are being used for private functions, private
hospital rooms, areas of enclosed shopping centers or malls that are
external to the retail stores and are used by customers as a route
of travel from one store to another, and that consist primarily of
walkways and seating arrangements, and lobby areas of hotels, motels
and other establishments open to the public for overnight
accommodations.
Where signs should be posted:
Any person who owns, manages or otherwise controls any building
or area in which smoking is regulated shall post in an appropriate
place in a clear, conspicuous and sufficient manner, ``Smoking
Permitted'' or ``No Smoking'' signs, or a sign displaying the
international ``No Smoking'' symbol - consisting of a pictorial
representation of a burning cigarette, enclosed in a circle, with a
bar through it.
Print on such signs must be at least 1-inch high, and the
international symbol, if used, must have a circle at least 4 inches
in diameter.
Every restaurant, bingo hall and bowling alley regulated by the
city shall post at, or near its entrance, a sign stating that a
no-smoking section is available.
The ``No Smoking'' signs may, but are not required to, contain
language that smoking is prohibited by city ordinance and that
violation of the no-smoking prohibition is a Class 4 misdemeanor,
punishable by up to a $100 fine.
KEYWORDS: NO SMOKING LAWS VIRGINIA BEACH SMOKING by CNB