Measure Seeks Exemptions To Smoking Ban

Publication Date: 2011-04-20

• Author:David Nivens
• Publication:WXII The Triad

Some health officials are watching a little-known bill in the General Assembly aimed at exempting some people from the state's year-old smoking ban in restaurants and bars.

Senate bill 469 would exempt those 18 and over from the ban and would require bar and restaurant owners to check identifications to make sure that all customers are adults.

"We hope this dies a natural death, and we won't hear anymore about it," Mary Gillette, county tobacco prevention coordinator, told the Guilford County Board of Health. "This would be a nightmare to enforce. The health department would have to enforce the code and determine if owners were checking identifications."

Statewide, several businesses have filed lawsuits aimed at limiting the scope of the law. The Senate bill also addresses what so far has been the contested meaning of a private club.

"There is the restaurant definition and the Alcoholic Beverage Control law meaning," Gillette said.

A Greenville judge determined that the law improperly exempted fraternal organizations and some private clubs while banning smoking in others. Don Liebes, owner of Gate City Billiards Club in Greensboro, filed a challenge that is before the state Court of Appeals. Liebes has challenged the portion of the law that allows smoking in private clubs.

North Carolina became the first Southeastern state to completely prohibit smoking in restaurants and bars.