Smoking ban gets 2nd-round approval

Publication Date: 2007-03-28

• Author:JoANNE YOUNG
• Publication:Lincoln Journal Star

Supporters of a statewide smoking ban are breathing a little easier already.

After weeks of work on a compromise, senators gave second-round approval Wednesday to a modified version of a statewide ban. It includes a way for cities, counties and villages — either councils and boards or residents — to opt out of the ban, in whole or in part.

“This is the best attempt that we’ve been able to come to,� said Sen. Mick Mines of Blair, who opposed an all-out ban.

“Both sides would like more. This will get Nebraska 90 percent to where, perhaps, all of us would like to be.�

The bill (LB395) would protect employees and the public from the hazards of secondhand smoke. It was originally modeled after Lincoln’s ban, which went into effect in January 2005.

If the bill passes as it has been amended, Nebraska could be a first among states that have passed bans to have an opt-out clause.

“No other state in the nation has an opt-out provision (for local governments). It’s clearly not the intention to protect people or to protect public health,� said Bronson Frick, associate director for American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation.