Lawmakers want to let county have stricter smoking rules

Publication Date: 2008-09-09

• Author:Sadie Gurman
• Publication:Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Two days before a statewide smoking ban is set to kick in, two state lawmakers are already trying to change it...

State Reps. Chelsa Wagner, D-Beechview, and Dan Frankel, D-Squirrel Hill, want to tighten the Clean Indoor Air Act so that Allegheny County can craft its own stricter smoke-free laws, they said at a news conference yesterday...

Ms. Wagner's bill would give Allegheny County 90 days to enact a smoking ban stricter than the Clean Indoor Air Act; Mr. Frankel's bill also would allow local governments to enforce stronger bans, except for Philadelphia, which for two years has had its own clean air law that Gov. Ed Rendell insisted not be overridden by the Legislature.

The lawmakers want Allegheny County to have the same authority that has been extended to Philadelphia.

"We have to protect all people equally," Mr. Frankel said. "We have that responsibility. If we're not going to do it on the state level, we have to do it on local levels."