Smoking debate lights up Olympia

Publication Date: 2005-02-20

• Author:Jerry Cornfield
• Publication:Everett (WA) Herald

The 2005 Battle of the Smoking Bans heats up this week in Olympia.

Smokers and owners of establishments they frequent are primed for a duel with nonsmokers and workers of those same enterprises, or ones like them.

The arena is the Legislature, where lawmakers will debate whether lighting up should be limited to walled-off corners of bars, bowling alleys and bingo halls, or banned completely.

State Rep. Joe McDermott, D-West Seattle, is pushing a statewide ban on smoking in all public places.