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Excerpts from: Smokers sent packing

By Frank X. Mullen Jr.RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL [09/25/02]
 
Airport plans to replace smoking sections with stores

Reno/Tahoe International Airport plans to remove its smoking rooms, leaving some passengers fuming because they
won’t have a place to light up once they pass security checkpoints.

Officials planned to make the airport smoke-free in 1992 but built two enclosed smoking rooms instead after protests
from smokers, sympathetic non-smokers and tourism officials.

Now, the airport board has decided to eliminate those 10-year-old, glass-enclosed rooms to make way for expanded
gift shops, airport officials said.

Airport officials said the smoking room closures, which could begin as early a next week, are needed to produce more
profits.

“We don’t want to inconvenience any passengers,” said Adam Mayberry, airport spokesman. “We need to increase
revenue to sustain air service and operations.”

The move to make Reno a nonsmoking airport is another example of tightening restrictions on smokers across the nation, and local governments may adopt other
new rules.

Washoe County voters will get to register their opinion Nov. 5 on an advisory question on whether smoking should be banned in schools, grocery stores, restaurants
and government buildings. Another county advisory question asks whether the county should be allowed to adopt laws that are tougher than the state’s to regulate
second-hand smoke, a process that isn’t legal now.

A Reno Gazette-Journal/News 4 poll showed 57 percent of Nevadans in favor of a state ban on smoking in public places, except casinos and bars.