Virginia leaders agree on smoking ban

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By Bob Lewis ASSOCIATED PRESS

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and House Republican leaders announced an agreement Thursday on a bill that would curb smoking in most public eateries and bars.

The bill represents a compromise between the Democratic governor's longtime backing for an outright ban on all smoking in bars and restaurants and traditional Republican opposition to mandated smoking restrictions.

If passed, the measure will ban smoking except in private clubs and inside walled-off areas of restaurants designated for smoking and served by a ventilation system separate from the one that serves nonsmoking parts of the establishment.

In announcing the accord, House Speaker William J. Howell said the bipartisan compromise was off to a good start.

"The big difference this time is both sides were willing to yield," Howell said.

For years, bills to ban or curb smoking have failed to clear the House, victims of the muscular tobacco lobby in a capital city that is home to the world's largest cigarette manufacturing plant.

This year at least 10 proposed smoking ban bills were introduced.

"It's not a perfect bill -- compromises aren't perfect -- but (it's a) very good bill," Kaine said at a news conference about the agreement.

House General Laws Committee Chairman S. Chris Jones said a total smoking ban never would make it out of his committee. The committee was expected to take up the bill Thursday afternoon.

Howell, however, would not predict final passage.

"There are people who are going to continue to oppose it," Howell said. "I'm never confident down here." Kaine and Howell said the deal they struck preserves a reasonable right to smoke in some food and drink venues while establishing safeguards from secondhand smoke, particularly for restaurant and bar employees.

"You're going to tell a guy who fought in the Battle of the Bulge that he can't have a cigarette with his coffee at the VFW? You can't do that," Howell said.

State Sen. Ralph Northam, D-Norfolk, and a physician who has specialized in pediatric neurology for 20 years, said the measure will substantially reduce public health costs from smoking-related illnesses. Aside from adult maladies ranging from lung cancer to emphysema, it will reduce a range of children's ailments, including asthma, bronchitis, allergies and ear infections, he said.

"The science is clear. The people have spoken. The verdict is in. Secondhand smoke is bad for our health," Northam said.