Smoking Ban Bills Pass the Senate

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Posted: 4:03 PM Feb 3, 2009 Smoking Ban Bills Pass the Senate Bills that would outlaw lighting up in bars, restaurants and public places won Virginia Senate passage Tuesday. With no debate and scant dissent, the four bills rushed through the Democratic-controlled Senate by comfortable margins. But they now head to the Republican-run House where smoking bans have gone for years to die.

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February 3, 2009

(AP) - Bills that would outlaw lighting up in bars, restaurants and public places won Virginia Senate passage Tuesday.

With no debate and scant dissent, the four bills rushed through the Democratic-controlled Senate by comfortable margins.

But they now head to the Republican-run House where smoking bans have gone for years to die.

Two of the bills would allow cities and counties to tailor smoking bans to their own tastes.

The measure sponsored by Sen. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, passed on a 23-16 vote and spawned the only dissent voiced on the floor.

Sen. Mark Obenshain, R-Harrisonburg, incredulously asked Lucas whether the bill "would allow localities to ban smoking anywhere they want, including businesses, including homes, including cars ... anywhere?"

"Yes," Lucas replied. "It allows a locality to exceed those requirements."

A similar measure by Sen. Frederick M. Quayle, R-Suffolk, passed on a 30-10 vote.

A bill by Sen. Ralph Northam, D-Norfolk, to bar smoking in all indoor restaurants passed on a 26-13 vote.

A proposed ban on smoking in public buildings and other areas by Sen. Mary Margaret Whipple, D-Arlington, passed 24-15.

Her bill would not apply in private homes, automobiles and businesses, private clubs, hotel rooms designated for smoking, tobacco stores and manufacturers, and in private and semiprivate rooms in nursing homes and long-term care facilities. Failure to comply would result in a $100 fine.

Latest Comments

Posted by: Carol Location: Madison WI on Feb 4, 2009 at 04:51 AM

More than 50 studies show that human papillomaviruses cause over ten times more lung cancers than they pretend are caused by secondhand smoke. Passive smokers are more likely to have been exposed to this virus, so the anti-smokers' studies, which are all based on nothing but lifestyle questionnaires, have been cynically DESIGNED to falsely blame passive smoking for all those extra lung cancers that are really caused by HPV. http://www.smokershistory.com/hpvlungc.htm The anti-smokers have committed the same type of fraud with every disease they blame on smoking and passive smoking, as well as ignoring other types of evidence that proves they are lying, such as the fact that the death rates from asthma have more than doubled since their movement began. http://www.smokershistory.com/newviews.htm And it's a lie that passive smoking causes heart disease. AMI deaths in Pueblo actually ROSE the year after the smoking ban. http://www.smokershistory.com/etsheart.html

Posted by: Rusty Location: Shenandoah, VA on Feb 3, 2009 at 04:26 PM

Scant dissident? The vote was 24-Y 15-N. Way to go on the one sided reporting.

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