WILSON SIGNALS SUPPORT FOR SMOKERS' BAR 'SANCTUARIES'

SACRAMENTO (AP) -- Smokers and bar owners eager to overturn a new state ban
on smoking in bars and gambling halls may get support from Gov. Pete
Wilson.

In an interview with The Sacramento Bee on Friday, Wilson said smokers
should have ``some sort of sanctuary'' for puffing away, and that bar
owners ought to have the option to allow smoking.

The governor made no firm commitment to sign a bill repealing the law. He
hasn't taken a formal position on a bill by Assemblyman Edward
Vincent,D-Inglewood, that would repeal the ban for at least two years
starting next January.

But he told the newspaper that bars should be considered differently than
restaurants and ``almost any other public facility,'' which he said should
remain smoke-free.

``It seems to me that if you have a cigar bar or a smokers' bar, people
ought to have the option of choosing,'' Wilson said. ``I think that smokers
ought to have some sort of a sanctuary.''

Vincent's measure cleared the Assembly this week but likely faces a more
hostile reception in the Senate. The upper house killed a similar measure
last year after the Assembly had passed it.

Senate leaders have said Vincent's measure will be considered in the coming
months, but expressed doubts about its chances.

Wilson, who smokes cigars, said smoking and nonsmoking bars -- or even
designated smoking sections within bars -- would give both smokers and
nonsmokers options.

``If they don't want (a bar that allows smoking), then I think they can
stay away and find a no-smoking bar,'' he said. ``If you had that kind of
situation, I'm sure market forces would provide the solution.''

Bar employees -- whom the smoking ban was written to protect -- would have
to put up with smoke under such a ``smoking optional'' plan, just as they
did before the ban went into effect Jan. 1.

``If you're going to have a smokers-only bar, you're going to have to deal
with (employees),'' Wilson acknowledged, ``and I'm not sure how you do
that.''

Anti-smoking advocates said they were disappointed by Wilson's remarks, but
not convinced they signal the ban will be lifted.

``I'd like to see him (Wilson) unequivocal,'' said Paul Knepprath, a
lobbyist for the American Lung Association of California. But he added, ``I
don't see this as any definite sign that he will sign a bill and repeal the
law.''

Wilson signed the labor-backed law that banned smoking in most indoor
workplaces in 1994. At that time, bars and the bar areas of restaurants
were given a two-year reprieve to allow the U.S. Occupational Safety and
Health Administration time to develop ventilation standards that bars could
use to clear the air of tobacco smoke.

When the standards still had not been adopted by 1996, Wilson signed a bill
to extend the bar exemption until Jan. 1 of this year. With ventilation
standards still undeveloped and the Senate unwilling to approve another
extension, the ban kicked in on Jan. 1. Health advocates say the standards
probably never will be finished.