New no-smoking bill targets bars that serve food

• By MARSHA SHULER
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: Mar 27, 2008 - Page: 1A - UPDATED: 12:30 a.m.

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Smokers could no longer light up in bars that serve food if a Baton Rouge-area lawmaker gets his way.

State Sen. Rob Marionneaux, D-Grosse Tete, said Wednesday he wants to close the “loophole” in the 2006 Louisiana Clean Indoor Air Act, which he also sponsored.

The Louisiana Restaurant Association opposed the law’s passage, arguing that restaurants would be put at a disadvantage because they would be subject to the no-smoking ban while bars that serve some food would be exempt.

Marionneaux said the playing field should be evened to create a healthier environment. That, he said, is his aim in proposing Senate Bill 185.

“If you serve any amount of food at any point and time of the day, there’s no smoking in the facility,” said Marionneaux. “Smoking would be banned.”

SB285 is one of several bills dealing with tobacco smoking that have been submitted by lawmakers for consideration in the 2008 Legislature, which opens Monday.

Other bills would raise the legal age for the purchase of tobacco products from 18 to 21 and further limit smoking in cars when youngsters are passengers.

The restaurant association’s legislative committee has not met to discuss the legislation, its chief of staff Tom Weatherly said Wednesday.

But he said Marionneaux’s bill “cuts at the heart of the restaurant association’s concern about the law. … That would resolve the issue.”

Philip Morris USA spokesman Bill Phelps said the company “won’t be engaged” on smoking restriction bills. The Richmond, Va.-based corporation that makes Marlboro and other cigarette brands

A spokeswoman for The Louisiana Campaign for Tobacco Free Living said the proposal appears to take another step toward a general smoking ban in places where smokers and nonsmokers mix.

“We would support a smoke-free environment, period. The fewer exceptions the better,” said Carrie Griffin Broussard, program manager for policy and advocacy.

Smoking would still be allowed in bars that don’t serve food and casinos, as it is under today’s law.