Statewide smoking ban moves forward

Publication Date: 2005-03-17

• Author:JOHN HARRINGTON
• Publication:Helena Independent Record

A bill that would eventually ban smoking in most every building in Montana open to the public is bound for the House floor after being revived and passed out of committee Wednesday. The bill would prohibit smoking in all buildings open to the public starting this October, but give some bars and casinos until October, 2009 to comply...

Bars and casinos that are open only to adults and that claim 60 percent or more of their gross revenue from alcohol and gambling would have the four-year sunset period...

Notably absent from the list of groups behind the bill is the American
Cancer Society. Because the bill pre-empts local laws until 2009,
spokeswoman Kristin Page Nei said, it doesn't meet that group's standards.

"The American Cancer Society has a longstanding position on pre-emption, and we cannot support anything that would prevent communities from protecting  themselves from secondhand smoke," she said. "Also, just because the pre-emption sunsets in four years, there's no guarantee that someone won't come back and try to extend that or lop off the pre-emption."