No progress on workplace smoking ban in state House

Publication Date: 2007-05-08

• Author:AP
• Publication:The Tennessean

The tobacco-friendly House Agriculture Committee made little progress today in deciding the fate of several proposals to impose a workplace smoking ban in Tennessee.

House Agriculture Chairman Stratton Bone, a Lebanon Democrat and a former tobacco farmer, said the committee wanted to hear one more round of explanations from various bill sponsors and that the panel would vote on the measures in the coming weeks.

House Majority Leader Gary Odom, a Nashville Democrat, is carrying Gov. Phil Bredesen's proposal to ban workplace smoking. Odom said the measure seeks to protect employees and customers from the dangers of secondhand smoke.