BILL PREVENTS CITIES FROM BANNING SMOKING IN BARS

SALEM, Ore. - A bill to prevent cities from enacting bans
against smoking in bars and taverns won approval Friday in the Oregon
House.

The bill would not affect Corvallis, which enacted a ban on smoking in
bars last year, but it would prevent other cities from doing the same
thing.

Backers of the bill said Oregon already restricts smoking in many
public places, including restaurants, and that it's going too far to
tell bar customers they can't smoke in public.

Rep. Ryan Deckert, a Beaverton Democrat who sponsored the bill, said
bars are patronized only by adults and that they should be free to
decide whether they want be in a place that allows smoking.

"Bars and taverns should be the one last place in which smokers are
able to congregate in public," said Deckert, who's a non-smoker.

But opponents said the Legislature should not try to prevent cities
from taking actions to protect bar employees as well as patrons from
the harmful effects of second-hand smoke.

"It certainly isn't a matter of personal choice for the people who
have to work in these places," said Rep. Diane Rosenbaum, D-Portland.

The American Cancer Society and other public health groups said Friday
they would work to defeat the bill in the Senate.

"The only winners today were the tobacco industry and those who profit
from them," said cancer society spokesman Jerry Spegmen. "The losers
are local communities and those whose health will suffer from the
effects of second-hand smoke."

Some representatives said they found it ironic that House voted
earlier in the day to let cities zone sex businesses into restricted
areas but then passed a bill taking away their rights to enact tavern
smoking bans.

Rep. Lane Shetterly, R-Dallas, also said that cities should be given
the freedom to be "quirky" and adopt ordinances that reflect local
sensibilities.

"Communities should have the right to establish their own identities,"
Shetterly said.

But supporters of the measure said allowing cities across the state to
ban smoking in bars and taverns would hurt Oregon's hospitality industry.

"Often people come to taverns because they want to smoke and drink,"
said Rep. Jackie Winters, R-Salem.

The bill, HB2806, was sent to the Senate on a 36-22
vote.