Don't let state blow off smoking law

By Walter Tsou

and Frank Leone

Philadelphia's widely appreciated smoke-free law (the Clean Indoor Air Worker Protection Law) is barely one year old, but it could soon be gutted by the Pennsylvania legislature. Instead of wrangling over what exceptions to include in statewide smoke-free legislation - an argument that amounts to deciding who gets to enjoy a long life and who doesn't - legislators should look at the scientific data about the devastating harm caused by secondhand smoke and create legislation that protects all people in Pennsylvania from it.

The Environmental Protection Agency classifies secondhand smoke as a Class A cancer-causing agent. The U.S. Surgeon General has stated there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke.

Although 84 percent of Pennsylvanians believe that all workers should be protected from secondhand smoke, proposed exceptions to smoke-free legislation would force certain workers, mostly underpaid bar and casino workers, to inhale this toxic brew. No one should have to breathe a deadly air pollutant just to earn a paycheck, whether as a lawyer in a high-end firm, a bar or casino employee, or a housekeeper making beds in one of only a few hotel rooms where smoking is allowed. Even such exceptions as allowing smoking at tobacco sales events in hotel conference rooms or in the Convention Center would be insidious, as if one would not be exposed to the tobacco smoke in adjoining rooms or in the same room days later.

Such tobacco sales events could last up to six days, according to an exception being proposed for the state law, allowing plenty of time to pollute the building. The law would actually require that signs be posted allowing smoking at such events.

Most ominously, however, some legislators are calling for a "preemption" clause that would prevent municipal governments - including Philadelphia - from having smoke-free laws stronger than the state's law. Why would some legislators, representing other parts of Pennsylvania, want to preempt Philadelphia's and other local governments' ability to make local policy decisions? The answer is that preemption is a tool of lobbyists for the multibillion-dollar tobacco industry who are pushing for a weak state bill, and want to use their allies in the Pennsylvania legislature to block attempts by local governments to go beyond what is provided for under a state law.

Now is a critical time for the smoke-free future of those who live and work in Pennsylvania, all of whom deserve to breathe clean, healthful air. State preemption would strip Philadelphians of their ability to govern themselves, weaken the city's smoking ban, and move us backward. We want a state smoking ban that does not preempt stricter local laws. Our city has watched as the state has overruled Philadelphia's wishes on gun legislation, the Parking Authority, and our school district. Enough is enough.