State Status
No Preemption
News Summary
Statewide Smoking Ban May Get a Senate Vote
Publication Date: 2008-04-01
- Publication:WSFA, AL
Tuesday, the Alabama legislature will reach the halfway point of this year's regular session. So far, the House and the Senate combined have passed only one significant bill and that's a ban on PAC to PAC transfers. Because of disputes in the Senate, not many bills have passed in the upper chamber. But Tuesday is a new day and one of the bills expected to come up for vote is a ban on smoking in most public and work places.
Trying to get folks in Alabama to stop smoking in most of those public and work places has been a gradual process for state senator Vivian Figures, (D) Mobile. "It's very important to me because it is by far a health issue." Four years ago, she got the legislature to pass a ban on smoking in public buildings and retail establishments as well as restaurants unless there was a separate room there for non-smokers. But now she's tougher than ever. "In some states they outlaw it everywhere."