Lawmakers pass bill to ban indoor smoking in bars

Publication Date: 2007-06-16

• Author:AARON CLARK
• Publication:Oregon Statesman Journal

Venues exempted in 1981 ban would clear air by 2009

Waitresses, bus boys, musicians and others who labor in smoky haunts came one step closer Friday to breathing the same clean air as Oregonians working in offices and stores.

The Oregon House approved a bill to ban smoking in bars, taverns and bingo halls beginning in 2009.

Those venues were exempted when Oregon banned workplace smoking in 1981. More than 35,000 Oregonians work in them, according to anti-smoking advocacy groups.

The new measure would leave only cigar bars and smoke shops exempt.