Coalition lobbies for expanding smoking ban

Publication Date: 2008-03-06

• Author:AP
• Publication:KSWO Lawton, OK

Members of an anti-smoking coalition lobbied today for a bill that would bar smoking in all restaurants, bars and hotels.

Wes Glinsmann of the American Heart Association in Oklahoma said banning smoking in bars and nightclubs is a matter of "equal protection" for employees and other nonsmokers who go to such places to entertain or be entertained.

A 2003 law banned smoking in most public places, but permitted people to light up in clubs and allowed restaurants to create separately ventilated smoking rooms.

A bill on the Senate calendar would eliminate the separate smoking rooms by 2013. Other establishments would be required to go smoke free on November 1st of this year.