Smoking ban advances; we urge its passage

Publication Date: 2006-05-02

• Publication:Daily Advertiser

A new try is being made in the Louisiana Legislature to ban smoking in restaurants statewide. The bill has a better chance than the one that was proposed last year. That bill, by Sen. Rob Marionneaux, D-Livonia, is believed to have been shot down by the gambling lobby.

Marionneaux is exempting gambling establishments and bars from the bill he is sponsoring this year.

Along with restaurants, the statewide ban would cover coffee shops, cafeterias, sandwich shops and school cafeterias. Restaurants that include bars would also be covered. The ban would cover a wide range of other public places such as banks, hotel and motel lobbies, public transportation, retail stores, sports arenas, theaters and school buses.

Lafayette's smoking ordinance seems to be effective, but our citizens do not spend their entire lives here. There should be a statewide ban to protect nonsmokers when they travel from areas that are combating secondhand smoke to those where there is no local clean-air ordinance.