Bill to Require `Smoking Permitted' Signs Advances

RICHMOND, Va. - Restaurants that allow smoking would be required to post a sign at the entrance saying so if legislation sent Tuesday to the House of Delegates floor becomes law.

House Majority Leader H. Morgan Griffith's bill would eliminate the legal requirement that restaurants provide no-smoking sections, although they still could do so voluntarily. Griffith, R-Salem, said smoke usually drifts into those sections anyway.

Griffith offered the bill as an alternative to legislation that would ban smoking outright in restaurants and most other indoor places. A subcommittee rejected the ban last week.

Attempts to restrict public smoking have not fared well in Virginia, a state with deep historical ties to tobacco. Virginia ranks fourth nationally in tobacco production, and Richmond is home to leading cigarette manufacturer Philip Morris USA.

Griffith said his bill would encourage restaurants to go smoke-free without trampling on their property rights.

"My constituents would like to have more places to eat that are no-smoking," said Griffith, R-Salem. Requiring restaurants to put up `Smoking Permitted' signs will prompt most to go smoke-free within two years, Griffith predicted.

The restaurant industry and public health advocates opposed the bill for different reasons.

"We think the marketplace is already responding," said Virginia Hospitality and Travel Association lobbyist Tom Lisk, noting that a growing number of restaurants are voluntarily prohibiting smoking.

He also said that "if this is good public policy, it should extend to all public places, not just restaurants."

Terry Hargrove of the anti-smoking group Virginians for a Healthy Future, which favors a public smoking ban, said Griffith's bill fails to protect restaurant workers from the health hazards of secondhand smoke.

Del. Terrie Suit, R-Virginia Beach, said jobseekers who see the "Smoking Permitted" sign on the restaurant door can simply apply elsewhere, but Hargrove said many applicants just need money and can't afford to be too choosy about where they work.

The House General Laws Committee endorsed the bill on a voice vote.

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)