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Action on Smoking and Health
A National Legal-Action Antismoking Organization Entirely Supported by Tax-Deductible Contributions
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NY Legislators Do Not Favor Amending State's Workplace Smoking Ban [06/18-4]
Excerpts from: Legislative leaders all but snuff out expansion of ban waivers
By JOEL STASHENKO Newsday [06/18/04]
The state legislative leaders said Thursday they do not favor amending the state's 2003 workplace smoking ban to exempt bars equipped with air filtration systems.
"Why do you want to undo something that is in the public's best interests?" asked Senate Republican Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, who has become an increasingly vocal opponent of smoking.
In addition to the waiver for air-filtrated bars, the amendment proposed by state Assemblywoman RoAnn Destito, D-Oneida, and Sen. Raymond Meier, R-Oneida, would permit smoking in separately ventilated rooms in billiard parlors and bowling alleys.
Bruno's counterpart in the state Assembly, Democratic Speaker Sheldon Silver, said he also opposed weakening the smoking ban.
Bruno said a "loophole" was built into the 2003 legislation allowing businesses to apply for a waiver from the state Health Department or local boards of health in larger counties, if the businesses could show a loss of at least 15 percent in revenues due to the ban. A handful of waivers have been granted so far.
But Bruno said the motivation of the ban remains the same: to prevent people from smoking in the workplace or exposing others to their smoke.
"Cigarettes kill people," Bruno said. "Cigarettes make people sick."
Elizabeth Miller, CEO of the American Lung Association of New York state, said her group is delighted at the high-level opposition in Albany to creating new exemptions to the ban.
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