Bill would expand ban on smoking

Publication Date: 2007-02-13

• Author:David Steves
• Publication:Eugene (OR) Register-Guar

But a bill rolled out Monday proposing a total smoking ban in such venues makes it clear that those are no longer the prevailing sentiments in the Legislature.

The proposal, Senate Bill 571, would expand the statewide smoking ban to include bars, taverns, bowling alleys and bingo halls among the public spaces and workplaces where smoking is not permitted.

The bill will get its inaugural hearing Friday in Eugene.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairwoman Ginny Burdick, D-Portland, said it was no coincidence that she chose to open hearings on the bill there, since Eugene was one of three localities in which a total ban, including in bars and taverns, was enacted before the state pre-empted such restrictions elsewhere in Oregon