Excerpts2008

Please See also those listed under Norfolk City Council items
The Virginia Beach Beacon, July 20, 2008: "Lawmakers pander to special interests over constituents"
The Virginia Beach Beacon, July 20, 2008: "Smoking ban bill should have gone to a vote"
The Virginia Beach Beacon, April, 2008: writer Hilton Oliver
The Virginian-Pilot, March 23: "Nicotine fit"
The Virginian-Pilot, March 20: "Suit's smoking legacy"
The Virginian-Pilot, March 9: "A hazard to women"
The Roanoke Times, February 25: "House subcommittee killed more than bills"
The Roanoke Times, February 24: "Smokers impose hazards on others"
The Roanoke Times, February 23: "Does tobacco lobby control the legislature?"
The Richmond Times-Dispatch, February 23: "Smoking decision isn't up to owners"
The Roanoke Times, February 22: "Smoking ban works in Vermont"
The Bristol Herald Courier, February 21: "Tell delegates to give ban a vote"
The Daily Press, February 21: "Kids and smoke"
The Roanoke Times, February 20: "Smokers shouldn't foul the air of others"
The Richmond Times-Dispatch, February 20: "Government should set restaurant policies"
The Daily Press, February 19: "The Pro-Cancer Vote"
The Daily Press, February 19: "Help nonsmokers"
The Daily Press, February 18: "Government has role in our safety"
The Bristol Herald Courier, February 16: "Virginia needs a smoking ban"
The Roanoke Times, February 16: "Nicotine is an addictive poison, it's not a choice"
The Daily Press, February 14: "Smokers don't deserve rights"
The Daily Press, February 13: "Reveal the votes on smoking bills"
The Daily Press, February 13: "Anti-smoking vote"
The Virginian Pilot, February 13: "Not smelly"
The Virginian Pilot, February 13: "Disappointed"
The Daily Press, February 10: "Tobacco lobby"
The Bristol Herald Courier, February 10: "Ban restaurant smoking"
The Virginian-Pilot, February 11: "Dunk doughnuts"
The Virginian-Pilot, February 11: "Contact Del. Suit"

State senators' decisive 28-10 vote Tuesday for a ban on smoking in Virginia restaurants was a reflection of their constituents' legitimate concerns about the health hazards of second-hand smoking.

A vote by six delegates on Thursday evening to suppress all legislation calling for new smoking restrictions is a reflection of how democracy is pushed aside in Richmond whenever public opinion clashes with the tobacco industry.

The story doesn't have to end here, but it will unless Virginia Beach Del. Terrie Suit steps forward to make sure this important public health issue gets the hearing it deserves.

The Virginia Beach Republican remains adamant that she will not use her power as the new chairwoman of the House General Laws Committee to secure a vote by all 22 members of that panel. That means the ban has no hope of ever getting to the 100-member House, where it stands a better chance of passage.

Suit is not just obstructing the desires of nameless millions across the state. She is blocking legislation that her own constituents strongly support.

Polls show ... broad backing for restaurant smoking bans in Hampton Roads, as many as 7 of every 10 citizens. All but one of the local governments in the region, including Virginia Beach, endorsed the proposal. A majority of owners in the Virginia Beach Restaurant Association have worked relentlessly for the ban.

Dels. John Cosgrove of Chesapeake and Tom Gear of Hampton were among the six delegates who voted to table the measures this week. At least they have never changed sides, like Suit.

As chairman, Suit is the only person who can revive those bills. A majority vote in the full committee could accomplish that task, but that is unlikely. She supported Gov. Tim Kaine's effort last year to pass a smoking ban for restaurants.

Her abrupt about-face followed her elevation to a chairmanship by party leaders adamantly opposed to the smoking ban. That's probably not a coincidence. Suit says she changed her mind because she believes enough restaurants have voluntarily gone smoke-free.

She's entitled to change her mind, but the wishes of her constituents deserve more consideration than she is giving them. The smoking issue ought to be settled on the floor of the House, not in a tiny subcommittee.

Advocates of a ban on smoking in all Virginia restaurants were delighted to see a new and seemingly friendly face this year at the helm of a legislative committee that knocked the wind out of their public health campaign last year.

Del. Terrie Suit broke with most members of her party in April 2007 when the Virginia Beach Republican supported a statewide ban proposed by Gov. Tim Kaine.

The measure failed, but this year Suit has the opportunity to play a crucial role in the debate as the new chairwoman of the House General Laws Committee.

Unfortunately, the rise to power has clouded Suit's judgment. Now she opposes the smoking ban she backed last year, a position that puts her at odds with her constituents, the municipal leaders in the cities she represents and even the restaurant associations.

Suit says she now believes enough restaurants have gone smoke-free that government regulation is no longer necessary.

That's nonsense, and none other than the Virginia Beach Restaurant Association says so. Local business owners insist the only way to protect the health of their customers and their employees is to have a consistent policy for all eating establishments. ...

Last year's proposed smoking ban jogged through the state Senate only to be snuffed out by a six-member subcommittee of General Laws. The chairman at the time refused to order a hearing by the full committee.

Suit has sent four smoking ban measures to the same subcommittee, which includes Del. John Cosgrove of Chesapeake and is led by Del. Tom Gear of Hampton, both strong opponents of a ban.

Suit says she won't try to revive the measure if it dies in the subcommittee again, a near certainty.

She's in a ticklish spot, caught between what's politically popular at home and what's politically necessary in Richmond. Suit is beholden to Speaker Bill Howell, an opponent of the statewide ban, for her new leadership post, and it will be tough to defy him. She insists he has applied no pressure on her to change her position.

Suit's greatest obligation is to her constituents, who want a smoking ban. At a minimum, she should use her post so the ban gets aired before the full committee and the votes are recorded.

Suit is in a position to make that happen. She should take this opportunity to use her gavel for a good cause.

Legislators are considering bills that would allow Virginia to join other states that have passed smoke-free workplace or restaurant laws, but the chances for approval seem dim again.

The state Senate has passed indoor-smoking bans for two straight sessions, ... the legislation faces a dead end in the House of Delegates, where a six-member subcommittee has killed indoor-smoking bills.

A proposal by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine to ban smoking in restaurants made it to a full vote on the House floor last year but failed, 59-40, after opponents argued Kaine's proposal was too broad.

Anti-smoking bills in the House could face a familiar scenario -- Speaker William J. Howell has referred them to the General Laws Committee.

That panel is chaired by Del. Terrie L. Suit, R-Virginia Beach, who voted in favor of Gov. Timothy M. Kaine's proposed restaurant smoking ban last year.

This year, however, Suit has referred indoor-smoking bills to the panel's Alcoholic Beverage Control/Gaming subcommittee. That panel has been unfriendly to indoor-smoking legislation, and its chairman, Del. Thomas D. Gear, R-Hampton, says he sees no reason to think that will change.

"If anything, I am more solidified than ever that government should not be doing this," Gear said. "Two of my favorite restaurants have gone smoke-free [voluntarily]. Let the owners do what their customers want."

Supporters of a ban believe the bills should go to a different committee, such as Health, Welfare and Institutions, in hopes of getting it to a vote of the full chamber.

"We think it is going to pass the Senate easily, which just adds to the outrage of what is happening in the House," said Hilton Oliver, executive director of Virginia GASP, or Group to Alleviate Smoking in Public.

"The issue of smoking in restaurants has nothing to do with ABC and gaming, but it has a whole lot to do with health," Oliver said. "They are playing games there [in the House], no question about it."

All the bills must advance through committees before reaching the Senate or House floors. In the Senate, the bills have been referred to the Education and Health committee.

Give the Virginia House Republicans a hand. They operate an efficient bill-killing machine.

By the middle of last week, House subcommittees had dispatched 611 bills that originated in their chamber, according to a Media General News Service report. Some bills were killed overtly; others were simply left for dead without so much as a debate or a vote.

This tally doesn’t include Senate bills that made it to the House only to be subjected to the same fate. The House Subcommittee on Studies finished off 29 Senate bills in a single session late last month.

House Republicans laud this system for its efficiency. We won’t argue that point. It takes far less time to simply ignore bills than to act on them.

But critics point to other, darker motives. House subcommittee votes aren’t recorded, and subcommittee meetings aren’t always announced in advance. Some meetings take place early in the morning or late in the evening, when it’s harder for the press and public to attend.

The summarily dispatched Senate bills included a proposal by Sen. William Wampler, R-Bristol, to create a Southwest Virginia Cultural Heritage Commission to help this region capitalize on its history and music. Perhaps the subcommittee prefers rock to bluegrass or traditional country music.

But it wasn’t just lower-profile bills that died in subcommittee this year. The House used the system most efficiently to deal with controversial legislation – in some cases measures that a vast majority of constituents favor but big benefactors in industry oppose.

Thus, subcommittee death was the fate of all bills to ban smoking in restaurants; a bill to close the so-called “gun show loophole,” which allows private individuals to sell weapons at gun shows without checking the background of purchasers; and a bill that would have created a bipartisan redistricting panel to redraw legislative districts.

All three bills deserved to be made law. The least the House could and should have done was to allow a full vote by its members on these high-profile initiatives.

This General Assembly session is almost over. In the interest of government transparency, House Republicans should record subcommittee votes next year – at a minimum. They might also decide to start giving important legislation a fair shake, even the controversial bits. Retire the bill-killing machine.

Smoking or non-smoking? Customers don't have to hear that at most restaurants in Tennessee anymore, but is the state's smoking ban making a difference?

The ban took effect on October 1, 2007; eight months after News Channel 11 investigated the dangers of second-hand smoke in the non-smoking sections of restaurants. Through the investigation, we found the fans, smoke-eaters, and perforations between the smoking and non-smoking sections didn't stop a large amount of smoke from entering the non-smoking section.

The same is still true in Virginia where legislators have not passed a smoking ban.

When Tennessee's smoking ban went into effect, customers raved about the difference inside their favorite eateries, but is that difference perceived or legitimate? Your Tri-Cities News Source rented an air quality monitor to find out. It is the same one we used in February 2007. It monitors particles in the air, including those that come from cigarettes.

We took the technology inside three Tennessee restaurants that tested poorly last February. ... during a peak meal time ... we learned the smoking ban did clear the air.

We found the biggest difference at the Johnson City IHOP. Last year, the restaurant registered a hazardous reading of more than 250 micrograms per cubic meter of air, that according to the Environmental Protection Agency’s outdoor air quality index. This time, the monitor showed a great reading of just 14.

The Chili's in Kingsport also brought in a hazardous reading last time. Not on this trip, a reading of just 24. Also in 2007 before the ban, the Elizabethton Applebee’s racked up a score of more than 150, a very unhealthy reading. This time, the reading was much better at 62.

Unfortunately, we can't say the same about all of the restaurants just across the border in Virginia. Restaurants in the Commonwealth still allow smoking. No surprise, three of the six we tested came up with unhealthy readings.

Even though we sat in the non-smoking sections of the IHOP and Logan's Roadhouse in Bristol and the Cracker Barrel in Abingdon, all three registered unhealthy readings. The lowest was still four times worse than the air we tested outside.

However, the air was clean at the Shoney's in Bristol. There, you won't find ashtrays on the tables and the only smoke you'll see comes from the food.

"It's very nice to be able to sit back here, to be able to talk and eat without smoke in the air,” Shoney’s Customer Wesley Simons said.

The five Shoney's in Southwest Virginia went smoke-free in 2002.

"It was the hardest choice to make and it was very difficult, but it was very rewarding in the end,” Shoney’s Vice President Mike Orzechowski said.

Orzechowski now urges other restaurants to do the same. He says business won't suffer. It didn't for Shoney’s.

"We had a gentleman that eats lunch about three or four times a week said, ‘I will never be back,’” Orzechowski said. “About two weeks later, I'd go by and pat him on the back and say, ‘good to see you.’"

Still, many smokers don’t like the idea of a smoking ban. The bans don’t just affect restaurants.

"Nobody's saying that it's not bad for you, but it's still our right," Interstate Bowl Manager Janie McCoy said.

Bowling alleys often lose out too. McCoy thinks it should be a businesses choice.

"It's like these people that wear cologne, it affects me, it causes me to have migraines, that affects my health, are they going to take that away from them?" McCoy said.

Smoker and bowler Robin Crisp also hopes leaders spare what she calls her right.

"It eliminates us from doing a lot of things,” McCoy said. "That's just all there is to it."

But it appears Southwest Virginia legislators agree something eventually needs to be done. Sen. William Wampler (R-40th District) voted in favor of a bill that would have let local governments ban smoking. That bill failed. [Web Editor's note, it passed the Senate, defeated in House subcommittee.]

"There are some major health concerns and that's why as a Senate, I think we opted to vote for a measure like that and let's just see what happens over a year or two like other states have done,” Wampler said.

Despite hearing our results last year, Del. Terry Kilgore (R-1st District) told us he would not support smoking bans. This year he says he could be swayed. Still, he would rather government butt out of this debate.

"It would be good if for a while if a lot of establishments are going non-smoking, this may take care of itself and the government will not have to be involved because consumers will make the choice with their feet,” Kilgore said.

But that could be a slow process and until something changes in Virginia, it seems Tennesseans will breathe the better air.

The power to revive Virginia’s restaurant smoking ban legislation – and give it a full and fair vote – rests in the hands of one woman.

Delegate Terrie Suit, R-Virginia Beach, holds the keys to unlock the smoking ban bills before the legislative session ends on March 8. She should do just that.

Suit is chairwoman of the General Laws Committee. At present, four bills that would place various restrictions on public smoking in the state are languishing in a subcommittee that reports to her. The six-member subcommittee tabled the bills without a recorded vote, effectively leaving them to die there.

THE PEOPLE of Virginia deserve better than such an undemocratic, unaccountable process.

As committee chairwoman, Suit can revive the bills and bring them before her 21-member committee for a vote. While there are no guarantees that the committee would send the bills to the floor, it’s the best shot for the ban’s survival.

Ban backers, although discouraged, aren’t giving up yet. Gov. Tim Kaine, who has pushed for the policy change for two years, sounded somewhat optimistic that a work-around solution to get the bill to the House floor will be found.

"The bills were tabled. They’re not dead yet," Kaine told this newspaper’s editorial board last week. "There are a couple of alternatives being kicked around."

THE GOVERNOR indicated he is still talking with legislators about changes to the bills that could make them more palatable to a reluctant House. Among the options under consideration, compromise language that would exempt bars from the requirements or allow smoking after 10 p.m.

Tennessee opted for a similar exemption in route to successful passage of its relatively broad public smoking ban last year. Businesses that prohibit customers and employees under age 21 are exempt from the Volunteer State smoking ban, as are cigar bars.

But the vast majority of Tennessee’s restaurants – including the chain restaurants that cater to families, but also have a bar area – are now smoke-free. There has been no major outcry against the law, even in a state that was once as enthralled with tobacco as Virginia.

In both states, the public supports a restaurant smoking ban; a recent poll in Virginia placed that support at 75 percent. This makes sense, considering that smokers are just 19.6 percent of Virginia’s population and 26 percent of Tennessee’s population.

IT ISN’T just the public that is pushing for smoke-free restaurants. The Virginia Beach Restaurant Association, an industry group with more than 100 members, is playing an active advocacy role in the debate. The group wants smoke-free restaurants, but wants a state law that would provide a level playing field for all eating establishments.

"The vast majority of restaurants support the ban and the vast majority of our customers support it," said Matt Falvey, owner of the Hot Tuna restaurant in Virginia Beach and a former head of the Virginia Beach Restaurant Association. "All we’re asking for is a chance to argue this in the committee."

Suit, who represents the Virginia Beach area in the legislature, was once on the same side of the issue – voting in favor of a smoking ban last year. Ban supporters suspect she changed sides because of pressure from House Speaker William Howell, a reliable ally of Big Tobacco, who appointed Suit to head the General Laws Committee.

If so, this is the worst kind of politics. The will of the people should never be subverted by the influence of special interests or the political ambitions of a single lawmaker.

The Virginia Beach Restaurant Association took out full-page ads in the Virginian-Pilot targeting Suit last week. The group is urging residents from all across the state to call or e-mail Suit and other key lawmakers and ask for a full committee hearing on the smoking ban bills.

SUIT DESERVES to hear from every Southwest Virginia resident who is concerned about their health or that of their children and grandchildren, but this public action campaign shouldn’t end there.

Three local lawmakers sit on Suit’s General Laws committee – Delegates Dan Bowling, D-Tazewell; Bud Phillips, D-Sandy Ridge; and Bill Carrico, R-Independence. Bowling, the token Democrat on the bill-killing subcommittee, opposes the ban. Both Carrico and Phillips voted against similar bills in previous sessions.

Despite their previous votes, local residents should still contact these lawmakers and ask that the bill get a full committee hearing. Delegate Terry Kilgore, R-Gate City, also should hear from constituents because of his role as the House Republican Caucus Chairman. He has considerable influence.

The region’s lawmakers should use their influence and power to provide lasting protection for their constituents’ health. The restaurant smoking ban is a good law. It protects the health of restaurant patrons and workers – the vast majority of whom have chosen not to smoke. Why should their lives be placed in jeopardy by the careless decisions of others and the willful neglect of state lawmakers?

Virginia has one last shot to clear the air in its restaurants this year. Take the shot. Join Tennessee and 21 other states that have embraced a cleaner, healthier future.

Virginia Delegate Dan Bowling offered a unique defense of his vote to kill smoking-ban legislation. The Republican leadership made him do it.

Bowling’s defense is particularly problematic because he’s a Democrat. He owes no allegiance to the Republican House leadership.

And yet, Bowling told The Voice, an alternative newspaper in Buchanan County, that he was compelled to vote as the Republicans desired.

"We were told that we were expected to vote that way because they wanted a 5-0 vote" against the bills, Bowling told The Voice.

Bowling was one of six members of the House Alcoholic Beverage Control and Gaming Subcommittee who voted down eight separate smoking-ban proposals. He is the sole Democrat on the subcommittee. The votes were unanimous, but there is no official record of them, since the House does not record subcommittee votes.

More problematic from the standpoint of the democratic process, Bowling and his subcommittee henchmen represent just 6 percent of the House membership. Such a small fraction of the House shouldn’t be able to scuttle an issue so vital to the health and well-being of state residents.

The smoking-ban measures – which sailed through the Senate with bipartisan support – deserve a full and fair hearing in the House.

Bowling’s efforts to spin his vote in the best light possible don’t end with his rather disingenuous claim that the Republicans made him do it. He also challenges our assertion in a previous editorial that he took $1,500 from the tobacco industry last year.

Bowling told The Voice that he might have accepted "several small checks" that added up to $1,500 over the "time that he has been an elected delegate."

Actually, Bowling accepted two contributions from Richmond-based Altria – $500 last June and $250 in 2006 – and $750 from S&M Brands last May. Perhaps those are what he means by small checks.

We didn’t make those numbers up; they come from the nonprofit Virginia Public Access Project and are taken from official state campaign finance disclosure forms filled out by the candidate.

Bowling was elected in 2006 to fill the unexpired term of Delegate Jackie Stump and was re-elected in 2007. In both years, he bested Mickey McGlothlin, a Buchanan County lawyer, for the Democratic nomination. The 2006 race also featured a Republican and two independents.

During the Democratic nominating contests, McGlothlin was dogged by allegations that he wasn’t a "true Democrat" because he had given a substantial sum of money to Jerry Kilgore, a Republican gubernatorial candidate. One wonders how Bowling’s apparent allegiance to the Republican House leadership will play with those who supported him because they thought he was a true blue Democrat.

In fairness, Bowling offers another defense of his vote. Such loyalty to the Republicans is necessary in order to bring home the pork to his district.

In the same article in The Voice, Bowling said he had to vote that way in order to keep his seat on the Appropriations Committee. He also suggested his vote was necessary to secure $250,000 for the Booth Center – a distance learning facility on the campus of the Appalachian School of Law in Grundy. Of course, most of the funding for that project came from a private benefactor and from the Appalachian Regional Commission. And it seems unlikely that Delegate Terry Kilgore, who is the House Republican Caucus chairman and a solid supporter of the law school, would have pulled funding or allowed others to do so for such a project because of a vote on the smoking-ban bills.

Bowling’s explanations just don’t make sense.

If Bowling opposes a public smoking ban, he should say so. He should be man enough to stand behind his vote rather than claiming that the Republicans made him do it.

Del. Terrie Suit's favorite restaurant is already smoke-free.

The stench of smoldering tar no longer spoils her omelets at the Jewish Mother at the Oceanfront. She can linger over breakfast for a chat without her throat feeling scratchy.

Suit says she dropped her support for restaurant smoking bans this year because many eateries have already voluntarily prohibited cigarettes and cigars. Specifically, the Republican delegate recounts her delight when the popular Virginia Beach deli recently banned smoking.

We're very happy for her, but what about the rest of us?

Suit notes that her constituents have plenty of options when they want to dine out without inhaling someone's else exhaust. ...

But folks in Saxis, Big Stone Gap, Elkton and Montross aren't so lucky. The small towns that dot the Eastern Shore, Southside, Southwest and other rural regions typically have only a handful of restaurants to choose from, and the local establishments are often less mindful of public health concerns than their tourist-dependent cousins at the Beach.

Last week, a House subcommittee shot down the last of this year's bills calling for a smoking ban in restaurants. The six-member group, which includes Dels. Tom Gear of Hampton and John Cosgrove of Chesapeake, even rejected a request by Hampton Roads communities for permission to adopt local bans.

Because a majority of the House General Laws committee is unlikely to demand a full hearing, the bills are dead unless the chairman of the panel intervenes. Suit controls the General Laws gavel, but she refuses to use her power to revive the measure, even though she voted for a smoking ban last year.

A mother whose son suffers from a lung ailment asked subcommittee members last week, "Who exactly do you think you're voting for?"

Perhaps the $17,500 collected by the six delegates last year from tobacco companies might help to answer her question. But what about Suit? She collected no cigarette contributions in 2007 and returned a donation the previous year.

Whom is she representing? Not her constituents, more than 70 percent of whom favor a ban. Not her local government representatives, who are eager to embrace public health protections. Not Virginia Beach restaurants, who lobbied for a ban through their association.

Suit owes her chairmanship to Speaker Bill Howell, an opponent of smoking restrictions. She insists he has not influenced her decision, but she understandably feels an obligation to her leader. Even so, she must weigh his desires against the thousands of constituents asking her to give this important issue a fair hearing.

Until she does that, those smoke-free omelets at the Jewish Mother will never taste quite right.

In a supreme show of political cowardice, six Virginia delegates acted unilaterally Thursday to prevent a floor vote on smoking ban legislation.

They thwarted the people’s will.

Seventy-five percent of Virginians want a restaurant smoking ban. So do Gov. Tim Kaine and 28 state senators, including Sen. Phillip Puckett, D-Lebanon, and Sen. William Wampler, R-Bristol.

In fact, the Senate passed four bills that imposed various restrictions on public smoking earlier this month. All passed by healthy margins and had bipartisan support.

Too bad those bills didn’t get a fair hearing in the House of Delegates. Instead, they were consigned to a subcommittee with a reputation for killing such measures. ...

As expected, the Alcoholic Beverage Control and Gaming Subcommittee dispatched all of the Senate’s bills without debate – or a recorded vote. The gang of six subcommittee members left no official trace of their nefarious act.

The subcommittee includes four Republicans, Dave Albo, John Cosgrove, Thomas Gear and Thomas Wright Jr.; independent Watkins Abbitt Jr., who caucuses with the GOP; and a local Democrat, Dan Bowling of Tazewell.

All six members took campaign contributions from Big Tobacco last year, according to the Virginia Public Access Project. Gear took the most, just under $5,000; followed by Abbitt, $4,150; Albo, $3,750 and Wright, $1,750. Bowling and Cosgrove took $1,500 each.

Albo and Gear also dined on tobacco’s dime last year and Abbitt accepted a $122 box of cigars as a gift. Perhaps he plans to smoke them in a restaurant near his Appomattox home.

Shame on them all. And shame on the House GOP leadership for allowing these bills to go down without a full and fair hearing and a floor vote.

The House has 100 members; six percent of its membership should not decide an issue of such importance to state residents’ health and welfare.

The slimmest of opportunities remains to revive the legislation. The full House General Laws Committee could ignore the recommendation by the subcommittee and bring the ban bills back for a hearing. The full committee has 21 members, including nine Democrats. Surely, not all of them are obligated to the tobacco industry.

We urge the committee to revive the bill and send it to the House floor for a full and fair debate.

Six delegates – all with financial ties binding them to Big Tobacco – should not have the final say on smoking ban legislation. Do the will of the people.

Looks like Del. Terrie Suit, R-Virginia Beach, may be getting a lot of calls.

The Virginia Beach Restaurant Association is urging people across South Hampton Roads to phone Suit and ask her to revive recently killed legislation that would ban smoking in Virginia restaurants. The group made the request in a full-page advertisement Wednesday in The Virginian-Pilot.

Suit is the only the lawmaker who can breathe life into the legislation, under the rules of the House of Delegates. But she says emphatically that she will not.

A variety of bills to stomp out smoking ... were killed this month by a seven-member subcommittee of the House General Laws Committee.

Suit, as chairwoman of General Laws, is empowered to ignore the subpanel’s action and bring the bills up for consideration by the entire 22-member committee.

That would be the fair thing to do, officials of the restaurant association say. They say it is unjust that restaurant smoking bans – which affect health and were approved by the 40-member state Senate – can be crushed by only seven of the 100 members in the House of Delegates.

“There’s a lot of support for the legislation,” said Matt Falvey, a past president of the association, which represents about 150 restaurants. “We feel all representatives should have a chance to vote on it.”

Suit said she does not want to waste time on measures that have no chance of passing the full committee. She noted that the state ban was killed 7-0 in the subcommittee. “That does not warrant bringing it up again,” she said.

Among the members of the subcommittee is Del. John Cosgrove, R-Chesapeake.

Suit said it would “set a bad precedent” to override the subcommittee. A lthough she supported a smoking ban last year, she said she opposes it this time. She said eateries should be free to decide whether to allow smoking and patrons should be free to choose where to dine.

“It’s so overwhelming, the number of restaurants that have gone smoke-free, that I don’t believe government has to mandate it,” she said.

Falvey said Suit is forgetting about restaurant workers who inhale secondhand smoke. “The employees often can’t vote with their feet,” he said.

The ad is headlined, “An open letter to the dining public.” It decries secondhand smoke and gives the phone number of Suit’s office in Richmond and the e-mail addresses of two powerful Republicans also opposing a ban: Speaker William Howell of Stafford and Majority Leader Morgan Griffith of Salem.

Although the Virginia Beach association supports the ban, many other restaurateurs and groups across the state opposed the legislation, including the Virginia Hospitality and Travel Association.

A last-gasp effort to ban smoking in restaurants and most other public places died Thursday in a House of Delegates subcommittee.

The same panel that previously rejected several House bills to curb smoking did the same to a batch of Senate proposals. The voice vote was unanimous.

House rules, unlike those of the Senate, allow subcommittees to kill legislation rather than send it to a full committee for a recorded vote. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, a proponent of the restaurant smoking ban, accused delegates of ducking a volatile issue.

"These guys don't want to be on the record on a matter like that," Kaine told reporters after the subcommittee vote.

The same panel rejected Kaine's restaurant smoking ban last year. The governor said he is unaware of any way to revive the issue before the General Assembly's scheduled March 8 adjournment.

The subcommittee heard familiar arguments from both sides of the issue. Supporters of the ban argued that government has a responsibility to protect residents from the health hazards of secondhand smoke. Opponents said government should butt out of private business decisions.

"This is an issue of choice and property owners' rights," Barrett Hardiman of the Virginia Hospitality and Travel Association told the ... subcommittee.

He said two-thirds of Virginia restaurants already prohibit smoking because "they are listening to what their customers want and are changing on their own."

Representatives of the Virginia Retail Merchants Association and the Cigar Association of Virginia also spoke against the bills.

Among those representing the other side were a breast cancer survivor, a University of Virginia student put off by the smoky interiors of bars and restaurants in a popular district known as The Corner, and a musician who must endure secondhand smoke in nightclubs.

The American Lung Association, the March of Dimes and the Virginia Group to Alleviate Smoking in Public also supported the bills.

But perhaps the most compelling testimony came from Sen. Ralph S. Northam, a physician and co-sponsor of the restaurant smoking ban. He described operating on a smoker whose lungs "looked literally like black soot." She died two days later.

"I vowed at that time early in my career that I would never put a cigarette in my mouth and would stay away from secondhand smoke as much as possible and do whatever I can to keep other people away from secondhand smoke," said Northam, D-Norfolk.

He also spoke of delivering heartbreaking news to the parents of victims of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Secondhand smoke increases the risk of SIDS, he said.

Subcommittee members, however, were not persuaded.

Del. David Albo, R-Fairfax, said he would be willing to consider tighter smoking regulations if the state ever establishes separate categories for bars and restaurants. The current law only defines restaurants, some of which are licensed to sell alcohol.

But he said legislation sponsored by Sen. Mary Margaret Whipple, D-Arlington, to ban smoking in nearly all indoor public spaces goes way too far.

"I'm not really against doing something, but I would never vote for a bill that does it in all buildings," Albo said. "If a man wants to smoke a cigar in his office he ought to be able to."

The subcommittee also rejected bills allowing localities, either statewide or just in Hampton Roads, to enact their own smoking bans.

Anne Morrow Donley, co-founder of Virginia GASP, criticized the delegates for putting public health in the hands of private enterprise.

"If they had been in government in the 1860s they'd have said each plantation owner can free slaves if they want to," Donley fumed. "They have no compassion."

A handful of delegates quickly extinguished the remaining smoking-ban bills yesterday, all but killing any chance of mandatory smoke-free restaurants this year.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, who saw another one of his initiatives die with the unanimous vote, criticized the way delegates killed the bundle of bills at one time in a subcommittee without a recorded vote.

"These guys don't want to be on the record on something like that," he said. "So the idea of [let's] hide these matters in subcommittees and not make people vote on these matters is a . . . strategy you expect to see on something like this when people are afraid to be on the record."

From their perch in a smoke-free conference room in the General Assembly Building, delegates listened to senators present their versions of smoking-ban bills -- ranging from narrowly prohibiting smoking in restaurants, bars and lounges to barring it in all public places.

Six delegates squashed legislation that 75 percent of Virginians favor, Sen. Mary Margaret Whipple, D-Arlington, said after yesterday's meeting. She was citing a survey of voters released by groups such as the American Lung Association.

"It is a very important public health issue and Virginia needs to take action," she said.

Del. David B. Albo, R-Fairfax, one of the only subcommittee members who explained his stance before voting against the measures, said he does not oppose taking some kind of action, he just will not vote to ban smoking in all buildings. He suggested looking at making a distinction in the law for restaurants and bars to tailor the bans.

Kaine said that could be discussed but he noted that some lawmakers indicated they would be more open to a ban on only indoor restaurants and bars but that bill died this year too.

Speakers favoring the bans on smoking in restaurants or public places told delegates yesterday it was a public health issue that the government needs to address. Restaurant-industry representatives said individual businesses know what's best for them and the decision should be theirs. If people stop frequenting restaurants that allow smoking, the business will change, they said.

Lorene E. Alba, an asthma specialist with the American Lung Association and previous Newport News restaurant owner, said she has polled restaurants in that area about a proposed ban and heard that many were afraid to offend, and lose the business of, smokers or nonsmokers.

"So the industry is not able to make this decision by themselves," she said.

Kaine, meanwhile, said he doesn't currently see another vehicle to revive a ban this year. He said the bans are "probably at the end of the road. Although you never know."

The Virginia House of Delegates defeated several proposals Thursday to prohibit smoking in restaurants, stores, offices and other public places, effectively killing all anti-smoking legislation for this year's General Assembly session.

The District and more than 20 states, including Maryland, have banned smoking in restaurants and other public places because of health concerns.

The House decision, which was not entirely unexpected, was a setback for Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D), who had made a smoking ban one of his priorities for the 60-day legislative session.

A subcommittee of the House General Laws Committee considered four bills that the Senate had passed, including one favored by Kaine that would have prohibited smoking in restaurants and bars.

The six-member subcommittee, controlled by Republicans, did not debate the bills before Del. David B. Albo (R-Fairfax) suggested that they be set aside. Committee members agreed after chairman Thomas D. Gear (R-Hampton) had repeatedly asked why restaurants do not ban smoking.

"I'm sympathetic, but I don't see something I can live with," Albo said.

Last week, the same subcommittee killed eight similar proposals from House members. Thursday's action means all the anti-smoking bills introduced in the 60-day legislative session are dead.

Kaine said it's "not surprising" that the bills were killed in a subcommittee without a recorded vote. "These guys don't want to be on the record with something like that," he said. "The leadership of the House is very afraid to have this matter voted on in an up-or-down vote. They want to bury it in subcommittee."

The proposals varied. Some included an outright ban in all public places or only in restaurants; one measure would have given local jurisdictions the option to enact smoking bans.

The bills were supported by many health organizations, including the national lung, cancer and heart associations, but were opposed by the tobacco, restaurant and retail industries and groups that protest excessive government intervention.

"They are listening to what their customers want. They are doing this on their own," said Barrett Hardiman, director of government relations for the Virginia Hospitality and Travel Association, which represents about 1,100 restaurants in the state. "These bills are not necessary. The market is responding."

But Lorene E. Alba, a former restaurant owner in Hampton who works for the American Lung Association, told the committee that restaurant managers are worried about losing customers who smoke and need the state to act. "The industry is not able to make this decision" itself, she said.

Virginia law requires restaurants that seat more than 50 people to set aside a section for nonsmokers.

Polls show strong support for a smoking ban, especially in Democratic-leaning Northern Virginia.

"We were sent here to Richmond to represent our constituents," said Sen. Ralph S. Northam (D-Norfolk), a pediatric neurosurgeon who introduced one of the bills. "I ask all of you to join me to do what constituents want."

The proposals were designed in large part to protect the health of restaurant workers. Studies show that they are exposed to higher levels of secondhand smoke than people in homes or offices. But opponents say the bills unfairly single out restaurants, most of which have banned smoking voluntarily.

Both sides of the debate agree that smoking bans have gained momentum because of actions by other states and a study in 2006 by the U.S. surgeon general that concluded that secondhand smoke causes death and disease.

The Virginia Department of Health estimates that secondhand smoke is responsible for 1,700 deaths in the state each year.

"We want clean, healthy air," said John O'Donnell, part of the Rachel Leyco Band in Richmond, which often plays in smoke-filled bars.

Letter to the Editor, The Virginia Beach Beacon, July 20, 2008, headlined, "Lawmakers pander to special interests over constituents", writer Hilton Oliver, Virginia Beach, VA.

It's no surprise that House Speaker William Howell plans to kill Gov. Kaine's road tax proposal by sending it to a hostile committee. The Speaker is a total dictator who abuses the committee and subcommittee systems to kill any and all bills which he personally opposes. Under his "leadership," the House instituted its rule that a five- or six-member subcommittee may kill a bill and keep the other 94 or 95 delegates from ever voting on it.

Howell has used his power the last three sessions to kill bills that would ban smoking in all restaurants. Although such proposals passed the Senate by a three-to-one margin last session, Howell intentionally routed them to a hostile subcommittee. Howell's PAC has received more than $139,000 from Big Tobacco alone to become Speaker.

But Emperor Howell cannot do it all alone. He needs stooges, and found one in Del. Terrie L. Suit of Virginia Beach. She just coincidentally reversed her previous support of a restaurant smoking ban when Howell appointed her chair of the committee to which Howell referred the smoking bills, and she killed 12 such bills last session [2008 session] by sending them to the same subcommittee which she knew would kill them.

Suit had the power to require a full committee vote, just as Howell has the power to bring any bill to a full house vote, but she flatly refused and played her political games. Surveys have shown that as many as 75 to 80 percent of Suit's constituents support such a smoking ban.

When lawmakers are afraid to have crucial legislation even voted upon because the will of the people might actually prevail over special interests, they show utter contempt for their constituents. Legislators like Howell and Suit are a disgrace to the democratic process and an embarrassment to all Virginians.

Letter to the Editor, The Virginia Beach Beacon, July 20, 2008, "Smoking ban bill should have gone to a vote", writer Krystal D. Villar, Virginia Beach, VA.

Anyone who ever walks into a restaurant that permits smoking should boil with anger at the political games that allow this health hazard to exist. New studies have proven that there are no safe levels of exposure to secondhand smoke.

The people of this state decisively want a law on this subject. We do not have it because Del. Terrie Suit, a committee chairman, took it upon herself to kill all of the bills last session that would have required smoke-free restaurants.

Del. Suit is an enemy of the very people whom she was elected to serve. She is not fit to represent Virginia Beach in the legislature.

Letter to the Editor, The Virginia Beach Beacon, April, 2008, writer Hilton Oliver, Virginia Beach, VA.

In a democracy, voters have every right to be furious when elected representatives place their personal ambitions ahead of their constituents. Such is the case with Delegate Terrie L. Suit, who is personally responsible for killing all of the bills last session which would have banned smoking in restaurants and other public places. Surveys have shown that seventy-five to eighty percent of her constituents support such a ban.

The full State Senate passed four solid bills, three of them by a three-to-one margin. All Senators from South Hampton Roads voted for all four bills. However, as chairman of the House General Laws Committee, Delegate Suit then insisted upon assigning them all to the same six-member, pro-tobacco subcommittee which killed such bills the previous two years. She then refused to use her authority to order a full committee vote. Her bogus explanations of these actions to both the press publicly and to her constituents individually lacked any trace of candor.

For three years, 94 out of 100 Delegates have been excluded from voting by such political games. Twelve separate bills on smoking were introduced in this session, and Czarina Suit denied all of them a full committee hearing.

Delegate Suit's actions are even more outrageous because she previously supported a restaurant smoking ban. She just coincidentally reversed her position when the tyrannical House Speaker, William J. Howell, selected her as committee chairman. Howell and his PAC have received over $139,000.00 in tobacco contributions since 2002. So the game is foolproof: Big Tobacco buys the Speaker, he assigns pro-health bills to Delegate Suit's committee, and she sends them to the hostile subcommittee to die.

Terrie Suit has exhibited utter contempt for her constituents' wishes and has perverted the entire legislative process. When a lawmaker attains that level of arrogance, there is only one solution. On November 3, 2009, voters of Virginia Beach's 81st District need to relieve her of her duties.

Letter to the Editor, The Virginian-Pilot, March 23, 2008, headlined, "Nicotine fit", writer Michael T. Caughney, M.D., Virginia Beach, VA.

As our representatives in Richmond wrap up another session, I find it interesting that they refuse to take any steps to protect me, or my children, from the horrific effects of secondhand smoke.

Yet at the same time, there is a media advertising blitz reminding me that if I don't wear my seat belt I am breaking the law.

What am I missing here? Not wearing my seat belt affects nobody but myself, but is illegal. Yet our lawmakers allow public smoking to remain legal.

Letter to the Editor, The Virginian-Pilot, March 23, 2008, headlined, "Too good to be true", writer Bill Werner, Virginia Beach, VA.

In her March 20 column, "Norfolk's plan to ban smoking may have blown up in its face," Kerry Dougherty says about 560 of Virginia Beach's 900 restaurants are smoke-free.

I'd love to know how she determined that number. I Googled "non-smoking restaurants Virginia Beach" and received several pages of encouraging results.

When I investigated further, however, I determined that if the phrase "non-smoking" appears anywhere in the restaurant's write-up (including the words "no non-smoking section"), it came up as a non-smoking restaurant. Also if smoking is permitted in the bar, it also counts as a non-smoking restaurant.

So if Ms. Dougherty has an accurate source that doesn't skew the results, I'd love to know about it. I really don't believe that 560 Virginia Beach restaurants are truly non-smoking.

Letter to the Editor, The Virginian-Pilot, March 23, 2008, headlined, "Please, quit smoking", writer Ruby McNelley, Norfolk, VA.

I have seen parents smoking in restaurants with their own children fanning the smoke from their faces.

Please find something more joyful to do than ruin your health and the health of those around you.

Letter to the Editor, The Virginian-Pilot, March 20, 2008, headlined, "Suit's smoking legacy", writer, Hilton Oliver, Virginia Beach.

Terry Parker was right on target with "Thanks for nothing, dear legislators," particularly on the public smoking issue. But those upset at the failure of proposed smoking bans should not blame the legislature, since the full Senate passed four solid bills.

Del. Terrie Suit is totally responsible for the fate of these measures. As committee chairwoman, she insisted on assigning them all to the same pro-tobacco subcommittee that killed such bills the last two years. She then refused to order a full committee vote.

Twelve separate bills on smoking were introduced this session, and Czarina Suit denied all of them a full committee hearing.

On Nov. 3, 2009, voters of Virginia Beach's 81st District should show Del. Suit the door.

Letter to the Editor, The Virginian-Pilot, March 9, 2008, headlined, "A hazard to women", writer, Warren Miller, Beale Street Restaurant (smoke-and transfat-free), Virginia Beach.

The California Environmental Protection Agency has concluded that secondhand smoke causes breast cancer in women. Younger women are at greatest risk. Restaurant servers have the highest exposure to secondhand smoke of all employment categories. And secondhand smoke accounts for about 30 percent of all breast cancer in that category.

The hardworking hospitality workers in Hampton Roads deserve clean air. Matter of fact, it's surprising no restaurant has been taken to court under the Civil Rights Act and its equal opportunities and protection provisions.

Think about it, Del. Terrie Suit.

Letter to the Editor, The Roanoke Times, February 25, 2008, headlined, "House subcommittee killed more than bills", writer Leonard L. Cuccaro, Roanoke.

I wish to thank the members of the House of Delegates subcommittee for killing the smoking ban bills ("Smoking bills die in House panel," Feb. 15).

I'm sure the 7,000 Virginians who die each year from smoking-related illnesses and another 1,000 who perish as a result of secondhand smoke would like to thank them too.

I guess the results of the poll released last month showing that 75 percent of Virginia voters favor a statewide law prohibiting smoking inside all public buildings and workplaces fell on closed ears. It is comforting to know that some of our elected officials place the interests of the tobacco lobby (oops, I mean the people of Virginia) first.

Letter to the Editor, The Roanoke Times, February 24, 2008, headlined, "Smokers impose hazards on others", writer, Heather English, Radford.

I am disappointed the bill to ban smoking in public areas was not passed by a Virginia House subcommittee. As a nonsmoker, I feel that this bill would do more to protect the rights of nonsmokers.

This would not only protect the rights of paying customers, but of those working in establishments that permit smoking. Recent research on the health effects of secondhand smoke shows that exposing children, nonsmokers and those with health problems, such as asthma, to smoke is a serious health risk.

I realize it is an individual's right to smoke. However, an individual's right should not encroach on the rights of others who wish to avoid the hazardous effects of secondhand smoke.

Several restaurants in the Roanoke Valley are nonsmoking, but the vast majority continue to allow patrons to smoke. It is a delight to visit other cities that have smoking bans in restaurants and bars. A ban would simply be an adjustment, one that would allow everyone to enjoy the same dining and entertainment options while protecting the health of everyone.

Letter to the Editor, The Roanoke Times, February 23, 2008, headlined, "Does tobacco lobby control the legislature?", writer Susan Simmons, Roanoke, VA

It is shame for all that the House subcommittee refuses to grow a spine and ban smoking in restaurants and all public places in Virginia. Do they still not realize that smoking and secondhand smoke cause cancer and an array of other health-related problems?

It is sad that low-wage restaurant employees must be exposed to smoke in order to keep their jobs. Sadder are the stupid parents who eat with their young children in the smoking section and blow smoke in their little faces. Yes, it is their so-called right.

Just travel to California, Florida, West Virginia or many other states and you will find that no one has the right to smoke in restaurants in those states. What is wrong with Virginia legislators? Are they slow, or are they just owned by the tobacco lobby?

Letter to the Editor, The Richmond Times-Dispatch, February 23, 2008, headlined, "Smoking Decision Isn't Up to Owners", writer, Marice Wiernicki, Chesterfield.

A recent "Week's End" stated that "the good guys won" regarding the defeat of the smoking ban. Saying that only the owner decides the rules in his restaurant is absurd. Smoking is a public health issue.

Restaurants and businesses for decades have been regulated by many requirements -- fire codes, electrical codes, building codes, health and sanitation requirements, all in the name of public health and safety. Yet, somehow, smoking is different?

Following this logic, a restaurant owner can decide what fire, building, and sanitation codes he chooses to follow. If you pushed this point of view the outcry would be tremendous.

There is a constant stream of studies -- and articles in The Times-Dispatch -- regarding the dangers of smoking and secondhand smoke, yet the Editorial Page continues to ignore the obvious. It appears that the same head-in-the-sand mindset that infests our legislature also is strong in the editors.

Letter to the editor, The Roanoke Times, February 22, 2008, headlined, "Smoking ban works in Vermont", writer Sarah Williams, Radford.

Almost two years ago, I moved from Vermont to Virginia to attend graduate school. I was excited about moving for the obvious differences between the two states: the warmer summer and shorter winter. However, I was shocked by one major difference that had not entered my mind.

The night I arrived in Southwest Virginia, I went to dinner at a restaurant. The hostess asked whether I would like to be seated in the smoking or nonsmoking section.

Vermont banned smoking in restaurants many years ago, and in bars in 2004. I have heard many arguments both for and against smoking in public places, many of which focus around personal rights. I fully back Gov. Tim Kaine in his proposed smoking ban.

Coming from a state that already has similar bans, I want to say that people do get used to it and are able to smoke outside the bars and restaurants. The topic has not been discussed since right after the ban went into effect, and residents do not seem concerned with where they can and cannot smoke.

Please think about the health of those who choose not to smoke -- adults and children -- when deciding your stance on this subject.

Letter to the Editor, The Bristol Herald Courier, February 21, 2008, headlined, "Tell delegates to give ban a vote", writer, Hilton Oliver, Executive Director, Virginia GASP, Group to Alleviate Smoking in Public.

Letter to the Editor, The Richmond Times-Dispatch, February 20, 2008, headlined, "Government Should Set Restaurant Policies", writer Robert T. Adams, Richmond.

Collette Murstein and Homer Ballard disagree with my recent letter concerning the proposed smoking ban in restaurants.

Murstein asks whether restaurants should be required to have nut-free menus because her daughter is allergic to nuts. If a sufficient number of people were allergic to nuts and if a majority of the General Assembly and the Governor were to agree to require nut-free menus, then that would be an appropriate exercise of the state's police power.

The real nub of Ballard's criticism is that a smoking ban would "disenfranchise" smokers by not allowing them to smoke in restaurants. In other words, he argues that smokers have the right to pollute the air in public places, "forcing" everyone there to share in the smokers' poor health choice. I fail to see any rationality in a position that gives smokers superior rights. Simply because a restaurant is privately owned does not diminish its character as a public accommodation.

We all need to eat and should have the greatest possible latitude in choosing cuisine and location. In contrast, no one needs to smoke -- but, if one wishes to do so, he can do it on his own property without hurting the rest of us.

Letter to the Editor, The Daily Press, February 19, 2008, headlined, "The pro-cancer vote", writer, Jenni Connolly, Newport News.

Reference: "House panel rejects anti-smoking bills," Feb. 15. This House subcommittee consists of: Thomas D. Gear, Watkins M. Abbitt Jr., David B. Albo, Dan C. Bowling, John A. Cosgrove and Thomas C. Wright Jr.

These are the people voters can thank next time they are subject to someone else's smoke invading their lungs and destroying their health in a public place in Virginia.

These are the people we can thank for making sure that other people have the "right" to pollute our air and the "right" to poison us.

They say that we can just stay home and not frequent places where people smoke.

I agree, next time they are up for election, just stay home –– or better yet, let's elect some representation that is not pro-cancer, that cares about the air we breathe, and that does not completely disregard the opinion of the majority of the people in Virginia.

Letter to the Editor, The Daily Press, February 19, 2008, headlined, "Help nonsmokers", writer, John Marshall III, Newport News.

The House of Delegates panel responsible for killing nonsmoking proposals should be ashamed of themselves. They are allowing smokers the opportunity to continue to harm innocent nonsmokers.

A smoking ban would not keep a smoker from smoking. They can still light up, but not with the same secondhand smoke risks that have been present for nonsmokers in public establishments for what seems like forever.

I am a nonsmoker and have worked in a popular restaurant for 14 years. I have seen and heard many guests complain about the smoke that makes its way to our nonsmoking areas. As a result, we have lost some of these guests.

I hope my restaurant, all restaurants, and all public places allowing smoking will have the sense to ensure a healthy environment for employees and patrons by eliminating smoking within their respective establishments.

Don't wait for the government to do the work for you. Sure, some smokers may be offended, but many patrons avoiding restaurants now will happily return, knowing their dining experience won't come with secondhand smoke risks and the general unpleasantness associated with tobacco smoke in general.

Letter to the Editor, The Daily Press, February 18, 2008, headlined, "Government has role in our safety", writer, Robert Quandahl, Hampton.

I have seen the letters from smokers and business owners who feel smoking is some kind of a right and that government has no business enacting laws to prohibit smoking in private businesses.

First of all, there is no entry in any book of law stating that people have a right to smoke. Second, government most definitely has an obligation to enact laws, or codes, to prevent unsafe behavior. Restaurants are prohibited from storing food on the floor, they must maintain food temperatures within limits, and they have capacity limits on the number of patrons allowed in the building. These and many other laws, codes and regulations govern how restaurants and other businesses operate.

Why don't people get up in arms about our government controlling how many people can be inside, for example, a Waffle House? Isn't that an infringement on the owner's "right" to operate his business as he sees fit? No, it is the government recognizing an unsafe situation and properly enacting legislation to direct businesses within their jurisdiction to correct the situation.

Government must strike a balance between what to control and what to permit, even if unsafe, in support of a normally functioning society. Subjecting nonsmokers to secondhand smoke is not necessary to have a normally functioning society.

Letters to the Editor, The Bristol Herald Courier, February 16, 2008, headlined, "Virginia needs a smoking ban", writer Dr. Larry G. Mitchell, Richlands, VA.

Virginia is for lovers, smokers and restaurant-industry lobbyists. But it is not for public health.

The House of Delegates, where Republicans hold the majority, defeated bills last week that would ban smoking in restaurants. Such bans are still in play in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, a Democrat, has proposed the ban. But why is this a partisan issue?

Don't offer me another specious argument against government interference, as if it's an inalienable right for people to blow smoke up my nose.

How about my rights to clear lungs, or clothing that doesn't require dry cleaning after a visit to a restaurant or bar?

"Freedom" has become another word for "selfish" in our society. But should diners have to expose themselves to risk because of someone's imaginary "right" to spark up a cigarette?

Imagine a cross-country or transcontinental flight in which travelers fill the already noxious air of the cabin with cigarette or cigar smoke. You don't have to, because smoking is banned on domestic commercial flights. The airline industry survived. So would the restaurant industry.

Closer to home, it is now considered presumptuous, if not impolite, to light up a cigarette without permission in someone else's parlor. That societal evolution is one of the few facets of American life, in this age of deteriorating discourse, that has actually become more genteel and refined.

Please hold the calls and e-mail messages denying the harm of secondhand cigarette smoke. The weight of science -- including a U.S. surgeon general's report -- tilts heavily on the side of nonsmokers. Arguments to the contrary are becoming as credibility-challenged as the denials of global warming. (Try telling a polar bear there's no problem.)

In Henrico County, police crash parties to bust underage drinkers and their aiding and abetting parents. But our politicians are curiously tolerant of a drug habit that infringes upon the larger public. We're not obliged to be participants in someone else's habit.

The "smoker's right to choose" argument is akin to saying we all should be able to drink without government restrictions. Let's keep the taps flowing 24 hours, allow teens unfettered access to booze and remove all laws against drinking and driving.

You up for that?

Of course not. Because our right to pound down a dozen or so brewskis ends the moment we become a hazard to someone else. What makes smokers exempt from being responsible for their potential harm to others?

"If restaurant owners want to say 'no', they can do it," said Del. Thomas D. Gear, R-Hampton. "It's wrong for government to intervene and tell restaurants they have to do something."

Absurd.

"As the governor has pointed out, we regulate all kinds of stuff about restaurants," Kaine spokesman Gordon Hickey said. "We make people wear hair nets. We make them wash their hands. . . . It seems kind of silly not to regulate smoking."

"We're hoping that this hasn't died," Hickey said. "As more time passes, more and more people see the light. And more people are in favor of stopping people from creating this damage through secondhand smoke."

But until those people are lawmakers willing to back a ban, I'm not holding my breath.

... After more than an hour of testimony from the bills' supporters and opponents, the House General Laws subcommittee on ABC and Gaming unanimously voted down eight measures that would have restricted smoking in public areas.

"It's clearly, if someone wants to go nonsmoking in a restaurant, they can do it," said subcommittee chairman Del. Tom Gear, R-Hampton, prior to the votes. "I don't think it's up to the government to intervene and tell the restaurant they have to do something. They can do it on their own."

Del. Terrie Suit, R-Virginia Beach, who leads the full House General Laws Committee, said she had once been in favor of a smoking ban. But in recent years, she said she's found that more and more restaurants are doing it themselves.

"Two years ago ... I couldn't find a restaurant to go to that was smoke-free," Suit said. "But because of this debate, the whole issue over the last few years has been elevated to the level that so many restaurants have gone smoke-free, I no longer believe it's necessary for government to step in and do it."

The subcommittee's actions don't bode well for a slate of four smoking ban bills that passed out of the Senate on Tuesday. They'll be sent to the same House subcommittee for consideration.

The killing of the bills also represents another defeat this year for Gov. Tim Kaine, who'd backed a smoking ban for restaurants.

"Obviously it's a disappointment," said Kaine spokesman Gordon Hickey. "The governor thinks the bill he was proposing ... was a good bill. It was good for the commonwealth and good for people's health. The Senate bills are still alive, so there's always hope."

Del. Dave Albo, R-Fairfax County, pointed to a possible compromise solution, though it won't come this year. He suggested that bars and restaurants should be separated within state code, with different standards for smoking to apply to each. Currently, state law doesn't distinguish between bars and restaurants, and an establishment has to sell a certain amount of food to get its state license to sell alcoholic beverages.

The bills killed by the House subcommittee included five variations on three basic versions:

- Give localities the option to pass their own smoking bans.

- Ban smoking in restaurants.

- Prohibit smoking in most buildings or enclosed areas, excepting only private homes, cars, private clubs, motel rooms designated for smoking, specialty tobacco stores, tobacco manufacturers and certain rooms in nursing homes and long-term care facilities.

The latter version of the bill was filed by three different delegates and seemed to be the most popular bill among smoking ban advocates and even the delegates carrying other versions of the ban.

Those who spoke in favor of the bills said they effectively address secondhand smoke, which they cited as a major health concern. They referenced a 2006 report issued by the U.S. Surgeon General saying there was no safe exposure to secondhand smoke. They also cited a poll released last month showing that 75 percent of Virginia voters favor a statewide law prohibiting smoking inside all public buildings and workplaces.

Julia Torres Barden of Chesterfield said the state and federal constitutions don't guarantee a right to smoke in public.

"It is not a personal-freedom issue in my opinion. It is not a free-enterprise issue. It is a health issue," Barden said. "And you're all obligated to listen and please act on our desperate plea to ask you for cleaner air."

Richmond-area musician John O'Donnell said his livelihood depends on playing in smoky restaurants and bars.

"Working musicians don't have the choice of what shows to play," O'Donnell said. "A musician can choose to play or he can choose not to play at all. ... If you think this legislation is about choice, you're missing the point: It's about health."

But opponents of the legislation argued that smoking bans trample on the liberties of those who own restaurant and workplace buildings. The free market, they said, is already moving toward smoke-free restaurants, rendering government intervention unnecessary.

Nathan Jones, a Richmond resident whose family owns 13 Buffalo Wild Wings franchises in Virginia and Indiana, said that Indiana's smoking ban caused a 10 percent to 15 percent drop in alcohol sales in the first year.

"We all know that one year with drops in sales of that magnitude can kill a small business," Jones said.

And Chris Savvides, owner of the Black Angus restaurant in Virginia Beach, said he went smoke-free on his own in 2006 after noticing the nonsmoking section was packed, while the smoking section had empty seats. But he still, under the right circumstances, will occasionally allow customers to smoke in certain sections of the restaurant, and he doesn't want the state to tamper with his ability to do so.

Savvides said he worried about the potential for both a statewide ban and the ability for localities to pass their own laws.

After all, tobacco is still legal in Virginia.

"I can plant it, I can grow it, I can harvest it, I can manufacture it, I can distribute it, I can sell it to people over 18, I can export it, tax it, chew it, spit it, dip it, snort it, smoke it, I can even bake it in brownies," Savvides said. "But if someone lights up a cigarette in my business, I'm going to get a Class 1 misdemeanor?"

The four Senate smoking ban bills won't be heard in the House subcommittee until sometime after Tuesday, which is the deadline for each legislative chamber to complete work on its own bills.

The proposed statewide ban on smoking in many public places, including restaurants, all but died Thursday night when a House subcommittee quickly spiked several smoking bills after an hour of emotional testimony from people on both sides of the issue.

The vote means it's unlikely the Republican-controlled House will entertain the Senate's smoking ban bill, which passed Wednesday. Democrats control the Senate. A statewide smoking ban in restaurants is also a top priority of Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, a Democrat.

The subcommittee of the General Laws Committee also squashed bills to give localities the right to impose their own smoking bans, a blow to cities including Virginia Beach and Norfolk that pushed for the power.

"This gives you some idea how much control lobbyists have," said Del. Algie Howell Jr., D-Norfolk, who sponsored one of the ban bills. "It's unbelievable that a handful of people will decide what's in the best interest of the people of Virginia."

Randy Estenson, owner of Poppa's Pub in Virginia Beach, who said 80 percent of his customers smoke, praised the ruling.

Delegates who voted against the measure took a similar position.

"It's not up to the government to tell people what to do," said Del. Thomas Gear, R-Hampton, chairman of the General Laws ABC/Gaming subcommittee.

Gear said many of his favorite restaurants in Hampton have decided to ban smoking on their own.

Del. John Cosgrove, R-Chesapeake, who is the only South Hampton Roads lawmaker on the subcommittee, also voted against the bills. Del. Terrie Suit, R-Virginia Beach, who leads the full General Laws Committee, spoke against them.

"The issue has been elevated to the level that so many restaurants have gone smoke free, so it's not longer necessary for the government to do it," Suit said.

A subcommittee of the House General Laws Committee voted unanimously last night to table bills that would ban smoking, either statewide or on a local option basis. Tabling is a polite way of killing bills.

The vote came after sometimes-emotional testimony in which health advocates said that smoking kills people. Restaurant owners and others contended that people should be allowed to choose to smoke without interference by the government.

The committee's action represents another setback for Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, who proposed a ban on smoking in restaurants. This was the second year in a row that the governor has seen anti-smoking legislation perish at the hands of the Republican-dominated House. The Democratic-controlled Senate earlier in the session had approved smoking bans.

Gordon Hickey, a spokesman for Kaine, said the vote is a disappointment. "The Senate bills are still on the table," Hickey said, "and as long as they continue to be in the mix, there's still hope."

Del. Terrie L. Suit, R-Virginia Beach, chairman of the subcommittee, said a majority of the committee could revive the bills, but said that is unlikely. The subcommittee votes have bound the full committee votes in every instance this year, she said.

"If restaurant owners want to say 'no', they can do it," said Del. Thomas D. Gear, R-Hampton, chairman of the subcommittee. "It's wrong for government to intervene and tell restaurants they have to do something."

Opponents of the ban argued that two-thirds of Virginia restaurants already ban smoking. But proponents pointed out that those statistics include fast-food restaurants, bed-and-breakfast establishments and college dining halls and are not representative of most restaurants with bars.

Representatives of the Medical Society of Virginia, American Academy of Pediatrics, Virginia Nurses Association, March of Dimes, American Cancer Society and American Heart Association testified against the dangers of second-hand smoke.

"Second-hand smoke causes about 50,000 deaths each year in the United States," said Dr. William T. Hark, an immunologist representing the Medical Society of Virginia.

He also said that while patrons can avoid bars and restaurants that allow smoking, the employees do not have a choice.

Jeff Harrison, a business professor at the University of Richmond, said he contracted bladder cancer from second-hand smoke. The treatment was so painful that he suffered from depression and had to go into analysis, he said.

John O'Donnell, a musician, said he had to play in smoky restaurants and bars because he had no choice.

Testifying against a ban were representatives of the Virginia Hospitality and Travel Association, the Cato Institute and the Cigar Association of Virginia.

Randy Estenson, owner of Poppa's Pub in Virginia Beach, said he mortgaged his home to buy the bar-restaurant and is afraid a ban would put him out of business.

"I don't serve things my customers don't want," he said. Eighty percent smoke, he added.

Suit said restaurants are voluntarily banning smoking.

"We don't have to make it happen, it's happening," she said.

A House of Delegates panel killed a wide range of proposals aimed at banning smoking Thursday afternoon, dimming the prospects that any smoking restrictions will pass this year.

A subcommittee of the House General Laws Committee voted down eight different proposals that would have ratcheted up smoking restrictions to various levels. Del. Tom Gear, R-Hampton, chairs the panel.

Last year, Gear's committee faced a similar situation -- with an almost identical cast of lawmakers -- and the panel killed at least half a dozen bills that would have prohibited smoking. It's clear that the panel doesn't favor powerful lawmakers because in 2007 the former Republican chairman of the House Appropriations Committee sponsored one of the rejected bills.

... On Tuesday, the Senate passed a handful of bills with varying approaches to tighter restrictions on smoking across the state. Sens. Mamie Locke, D-Hampton, and Ralph Northam, D-Norfolk, are carrying the proposal backed by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine that would ban smoking in any indoor restaurant, bar or lounge.

Kaine, a Democrat, completely rewrote a bill last year in an attempt to enact a smoking ban, but House lawmakers rejected Kaine's bid 59 to 40. Kaine has renewed his push this year, siding with doctors and nurses who lament the health problems triggered by second-hand smoke.

Advocates of the ban are also enlisting some restaurant workers as allies, arguing that bar and restaurant employees suffer through the smoke without any choice.

But the hospitality industry is fighting back, trotting out business owners who want to keep catering to smokers and believe the restrictions infringe on their rights. Officials from the Virginia Travel and Hospitality Association have also produced voluminous lists of restaurants that have voluntarily gone smoke free.

Smoke 'em if you've got 'em. Just don't do it inside a public building.

That was the message sent Tuesday by the Virginia Senate, which voted 23-15 to pass legislation to ban smoking in most indoor public places.

The Senate also passed more narrow restrictions ... including two local-option bills and one backed by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine to prohibit smoking in restaurants and bars statewide. All four anti-smoking bills now go to the House of Delegates, which last year rejected a restaurant smoking ban.

Sen. Mary Margaret Whipple's bill would prohibit smoking not only in restaurants, but also in banks, sporting arenas, shopping malls and most other public places. It exempts hotel rooms designated for smoking, specialty tobacco stores and private rooms in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities.

Whipple, D-Arlington, said science clearly shows that secondhand smoke is a health hazard. She said that while smoking kills about 9,000 Virginians a year, exposure to secondhand smoke claims an additional 1,000.

Opponents of the bill objected to a provision that allows local governments to pass restrictions even tougher than those imposed by the state. Sen. Stephen Newman, R-Lynchburg, said localities could even ban smoking in private homes and cars.

Without debate, the Senate also voted 28-10 to pass the bill banning smoking in restaurants and bars. Sen. Mamie E. Locke, D-Hampton and co-sponsor of the bill, noted that the ban does not cover outdoor eating and drinking areas.

The other two bills approved Tuesday would allow localities to enact smoking ordinances and give some Hampton Roads localities the authority to enact bans.

Health advocates have lobbied for the restrictions, while lobbyists for restaurants, hotels, businesses and the tobacco industry have opposed them, arguing that smoking policies should be left to business owners.

Tobacco companies and tobacco growers contributed $287,000 to candidates in the 2007 House of Delegates and state Senate elections, while restaurants gave about $218,000, according to the Virginia Public Access Project, an independent, nonprofit tracker of money in state politics.

The Virginia Senate approved a series of four bills Tuesday that would ban smoking in restaurants and other buildings, either on a locality-by-locality basis or statewide.

The four bills received varying amounts of support, with a local option bill that provides counties, cities and towns the right to regulate smoking receiving the most votes, and the most comprehensive bill that bans smoking in most public places receiving the fewest. ...

The bills now go to the House of Delegates. The House has killed similar legislation at the committee level the past few years. A House General Laws subcommittee is scheduled Thursday to take up similar, delegate-sponsored bills to ban smoking.

Most of Tuesday's debate on the Senate floor focused on SB 298, the most restrictive bill. Its sponsor, Sen. Mary Margaret Whipple, D-Arlington, cited a 2006 U.S. Surgeon General's report strongly condemning secondhand smoke and a recent survey showing that 75 percent of Virginia voters support no smoking inside all public buildings and workplaces, including offices, restaurants and bars.

Opponents of the smoking bans have argued that they trample the private property rights of business owners, who should decide whether to go smoke-free. They have said that the free market should solve the problem, not the government.

Several senators took a different approach during the floor debate Tuesday, choosing to focus less on the philosophical problems and instead on language in Whipple's bill.

Sen. Ken Cuccinelli, R-Fairfax County, argued that a line prohibiting the formation of clubs to get around the law violated the right to assemble found in the Bill of Rights.

Sen. Steve Newman, R-Lynchburg, also disagreed with the bill. He questioned one section that requires all ashtrays -- even decorative ones -- be removed from areas where smoking is prohibited, and was alarmed by a section that would allow localities to pass even stricter smoking bans.

"It says anywhere in this commonwealth, in your district and in ours, we can come up with a piece of legislation that says you can outlaw smoking in your own home. You can outlaw smoking in your own car as you're driving through unaware," Newman said.

Nevertheless, the bill was approved by an eight-vote margin -- one more than for a similar bill carried by then-Sen. Brandon Bell last year.

A bill to significantly restrict smoking in most public places, and three other bills that would ban smoking in restaurants, all advanced out of the Senate on Tuesday.

The most far-reaching of the bills is legislation introduced by Sen. Mary Margaret Whipple, D-Arlington. Her measure, SB298, would ban smoking in most public places, including restaurants and was approved, 23-15-1. It includes language to let localities adopt ordinances for their communities that place even more restrictions on smoking.

The three other bills that advanced ban smoking in restaurants. All are sponsored by members of the Hampton Roads delegation.

Sens. Mamie Locke, D-Hampton, and Ralph Northam, D-Norfolk, are jointly pushing SB501, a measure that would prohibit smoking in restaurants and bars across the state but makes an exception for facilities with outdoor areas that aren't enclosed.

It was approved 28-10-1.

Sen. Fred Quayle, R-Suffolk, has a bill, SB202, that would permit any locality to adopt a smoking ban in restaurants; while SB347, a bill from Sen. Harry Blevins, R-Chesapeake, is crafted specifically to give Hampton Roads communities a local option.

All four bills received affirmative votes from every member of the Hampton Roads delegation, but there was debate about the scope of Whipple's SB298.

Sen. Ken Cuccinelli, R-Fairfax, was critical of Whipple's bill, saying that, in addition to curtailing smoking in public places, the measure targets people who privately gather to smoke together.

"This specifically targets attempts by the distinct minority of folks, even in Virginia, to have smoking clubs... an otherwise legal undertaking," he said, calling the language an unconstitutional restriction on the right of free association.

Citing data from medical studies about the negative health effects of secondhand smoke, Whipple said "it is time to take this important public health measure."

A public place, as defined in her bill, would include restaurants and bars, school buildings, child care facilities and recreational facilities.

The Whipple bill would require properties where smoking is prohibited to post signs indicating as much and to remove all ashtrays and related paraphernalia. Fines for violators would range from $100 to $500.

Locke said the bill she and Northam are sponsoring would ban smoking in restaurants and bars but would provide an exception for outdoor areas that are not enclosed. Like Whipple's bill, it would require that "no smoking" signs be posted. The bill carries a $25 penalty for violations.

Quayle said SB202 allows any locality in the state to adopt a local restaurant smoking ban.

Blevins' SB347 would provide the local option to Hampton Roads communities.

All four bills now advance to the House of Delegates.

The state Senate yesterday adopted three anti-smoking bills of varying restrictions ...

Senate Bill 298, the most comprehensive measure approved, would prohibit smoking "indoors in most buildings or enclosed areas frequented by the public." It covers banks, sports arenas, restaurants and shopping malls.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Mary Margaret Whipple, D-Arlington, would require "No Smoking" signs to be posted where smoking is prohibited and subject violators to fines from $100 to $250. Proprietors of businesses not exempted from the ban would face fines ranging from $200 to $500.

Exceptions to the law would include private homes or residences, cars and home businesses, unless they are related to child care or health care. Private clubs would also be excluded from the smoking ban, as well as designated smoking rooms in hotels, tobacco stores and certain rooms in nursing homes.

"The science is clear," Whipple told her Senate colleagues, citing recent statistics on the health effects of second-hand smoke. "It's time we take this important public health measure" and adopt it.

The bill passed by a vote of 23-15, but not before a handful of Republican senators tried to defeat the measure.

"It's a direct violation of the rights of Americans to perform a perfectly legal activity," said Sen. Ken Cuccinelli, R-Fairfax, who questioned the bill's constitutionality.

Sen. Stephen H. Martin, R-Chesterfield, and Sen. Stephen D. Newman, R-Lynchburg, said the proposed law was too broad and could be interpreted to impose smoking restrictions in private settings.

With less opposition, the Senate passed two other bills that would place narrower limits on restricting smoking in public places.

Senate Bill 501, proposed by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and carried in the Senate by Sens. Mamie E. Locke D-Hampton, and Ralph S. Northam, D-Norfolk, would prohibit smoking in any enclosed public food establishment, bar or lounge area in the state, with the exception of private clubs. The bill passed 28-10.

On a 29-9 vote, senators approved Senate Bill 202, sponsored by Sen. Frederick M. Quayle, R-Chesapeake. His so-called "local option" bill would give any locality in Virginia the authority to adopt an ordinance restricting smoking in restaurants.

When I first moved to Illinois to work at The Southern Illinoisan, a small newspaper in Carbondale, I was surprised to find that smoking in grocery stores was fairly common.

But not long after that 1990 move, Illinois strengthened its Clean Indoor Act to eliminate smoking in most public places. Restaurants could still have smoking areas and bars were excluded, but it was a giant leap forward.

This year, the Smoke Free Illinois act took effect, which essentially bans smoking in any enclosed buildings except private residences and tobacco shops.

In West Virginia, where I worked for 10 years, county boards of health were empowered to set smoking policies. In 1992, the Kanawha County Board of Health became the first to limit smoking in public places. By 2003, all 55 county boards of health had instituted some sort of smoking limit, and some counties had completely banned smoking indoors in public places.

The day before I moved to Florida in 2003, the state implemented a law banning smoking in restaurants and bars that made more than 10 percent of their revenue from food sales.

Sorry for the little employment history, but it seemed ... a good way to illustrate how far behind the curve Virginia is when it comes to smoking in public places.

I know tobacco has a long history in Virginia. Philip Morris USA has its headquarters here. Many farmers still make their living growing the weed. Etc., etc.

You know what? It's time to get over all that. Tobacco is a deadly product. If I thought prohibition would be effective, I'd argue for that. Though making cigarettes illegal would certainly backfire, limiting the places where smoking is allowed has proven hugely successful in other states, both in protecting nonsmokers from secondhand smoke and in actually reducing the number of smokers.

It turns out if you have to go most of the day at work without a cigarette, it's a lot easier to quit. Most smokers, by the way, would quit if the product weren't so incredibly addictive.

That brings us to the failed attempts in recent years to pass a simple ban on smoking in Virginia restaurants. Currently, restaurants are only required to have no-smoking sections, but nothing says there has to be any genuine separation -- walls or separate ventilation systems, for instance -- between the sections.

That makes the requirement all but worthless. There's a certain wing restaurant in town I like to take my son to. But some days if there are a lot of smokers in the bar, I need to turn around unless I want my 3-year-old to walk out of there smelling like an ashtray.

There's nothing between the bar, where smoking is allowed, and the nonsmoking section except a waist-high wall. The ventilation system seems designed to spread the smoke around.

Some argue that we should let the free market decide the issue. There's nothing to stop restaurant owners from deciding to ban smoking in their own establishments. If smoking drives customers away, soon enough most restaurants will make the logical choice to go smoke-free.

But that would take too long, and would still leave many restaurants that allow smoking. To me, this is a workplace safety issue. Secondhand smoke is a known carcinogen. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control estimates it kills about 50,000 Americans every year.

Employers cannot knowingly expose their workers to any other deadly toxin. Secondhand smoke should not be an exception. Workers should not have to choose between breathing someone else's cigarette smoke and making a living.

For that reason, I'm with Sen. George Barker, D-Fairfax County, a member of a subcommittee of the Senate Education and Health Committee that passed a bill that would ban smoking not just in restaurants but in all workplaces.

As Barker said, "This is a public health initiative. That's why I think it needs to be addressed broadly rather than more narrowly."

History suggests the bill pushed by Barker will face a tough reception in the Republican-controlled House. That body passed a bill last year that would have done away with the mandate for nonsmoking sections in restaurants in exchange for a requirement to post a sign at the entrance of restaurants where smoking is allowed.

But if House members view it, as Barker does, as a public health initiative rather than a property rights issue, perhaps they'll find the courage to buck the tobacco industry, and their leadership, and vote for the bill.

James Bogden wanted to use the courts to force Virginia restaurants to become smoke-free, but he could never find the right plaintiff to file a lawsuit.

Until one day in 2006, when Bogden had a heart attack and realized he had his man: himself.

"My heart attack happened, and voilÃ ," said Bogden, a public health educator and anti-smoking activist. "I decided to make some lemonade out of a lemon."

Bogden is the plaintiff in a lawsuit filed against four local restaurants in U.S. District Court in Alexandria. The suit seeks to require the restaurants to become smoke-free, arguing that they must accommodate Bogden's disability, coronary artery disease, and eliminate secondhand smoke so he can eat at them. Each of the restaurants allows smoking in designated areas.

Lawyers said that it's rare to ask a judge to intervene in the debate over smoking in restaurants and bars and that the suit is unusual because Bogden is not seeking monetary damages beyond his court costs. After his doctor warned him to avoid secondhand smoke, all Bogden wants is an order requiring the restaurants to ban smoking.

Asked why he doesn't eat at smoke-free restaurants, Bogden, who filed his claim under the Americans With Disabilities Act, said those establishments are hard to find.

"And I shouldn't have to do that," he said. "The ADA says restaurants can't discriminate against a person with a disability."

Exactly what the ADA requires is at the heart of the legal argument. Attorneys for the restaurants -- Clyde's at Mark Center and Denny's in Alexandria, Harry's Tap Room in Arlington and Mike's American Grill in Springfield -- are asking a judge to dismiss the case, arguing that Bogden's heart condition does not make him disabled under the ADA.

The lawsuit is "a thinly veiled attempt to compel this Court to improperly usurp the functions of the Virginia legislature," the restaurants argued in their motion for dismissal, filed this month. A judge will hear arguments on that motion Feb. 8. The lawsuit, which seeks class-action status, was filed in November.

The case comes as debate over smoking in public places is escalating in Virginia. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) proposed a statewide ban on smoking in bars and restaurants in his State of the Commonwealth address this month; legislators rejected a similar proposal last year. More than 20 states and the District have such bans, and one will take effect next month in Maryland .

If Bogden's lawsuit is successful, he said he wants to use it as a model that could be replicated elsewhere in Virginia and other states.

Bogden, 51, works for the National Association of State Boards of Education in Alexandria , where his specialty is helping schools design policies to promote better health.

He is a board member of Smokefree DC , which pushed for the restaurant smoking ban in the District. A few years ago, before the D.C. ban was enacted, Bogden and the group's attorney, J.P. Szymkowicz, began discussing a strategy to use the courts to force such a ban in the District. The two later turned their attention to Virginia.

Without a plaintiff, there was no lawsuit until after Bogden began feeling chest pains while running on a treadmill in January 2006.

"I thought I had strained my chest muscles," said Bogden, who walked around for four days with intermittent chest pains before going to George Washington University Hospital in the District, where he lives.

The diagnosis was a moderate heart attack. Doctors performed an angioplasty and warned Bogden to avoid secondhand smoke because he had coronary artery disease. The smoke is especially dangerous for him, doctors said, because of his family history. His father developed heart disease at age 45, and his mother died of a heart attack at 61.

Through the lawsuit, Bogden also thought he could help publicize the results of a 2006 report by the U.S. surgeon general. It found that the health effects of secondhand smoke are much more pervasive than previously thought and that it dramatically increases the risk of heart disease and lung cancer in nonsmokers.

For his targets, Bogden chose restaurants where he had eaten before his heart attack. He liked them, he said, but is now reluctant to patronize the establishments because he thinks they are too smoky.

"He has had to decline invitations from co-workers and business associates to go to these restaurants," said Szymkowicz, who is representing Bogden in the case. "All of these restaurants have good food; so if he likes the food and atmosphere in a particular restaurant, why should he have to go somewhere else?"

The lawsuit says Bogden "attempted to patronize" each of the restaurants on various occasions since his heart attack but had to leave because he could smell smoke.

"There was no immediate physical effect apart from sensing that there was smoke," he said, "but it was the knowledge that I'm walking around with this ticking time bomb in my heart, and smoke is one of the things that could trigger it."

Bogden said he was able to eat at Mike's American on one occasion since his heart attack, when there apparently was no secondhand smoke.

The lawsuit also cites information from an air-pollution specialist working for Bogden's team who covertly measured the air quality at the four restaurants using a device about half the size of a shoebox.

The expert found that all the restaurants "were contaminated with secondhand smoke" and that "the smoke levels which Mr. Bogden would encounter by patronizing these venues would place him at risk," the lawsuit said.

James Bogden, 51, says four Northern Virginia restaurants are violating the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by allowing smoking. Mr. Bogden has suffered a heart attack and has coronary artery disease. He says he can't safely patronize the restaurants because secondhand smoke can increase his risk of another heart attack.

He claims the disease limits his "major life activities," as defined by the ADA, and that by allowing smoking, the restaurants discriminated against him on the basis of his disability, according to his complaint.

The suit was filed against Harry's Tap Room of Arlington, Mike's American Grill of Springfield and Denny's and Clyde's of Alexandria.

The restaurants argue in their motion to dismiss the suit that Mr. Bogden is not disabled under the ADA definition. They also say they aren't discriminating because if secondhand smoke is harmful to everyone, as Mr. Bogden says, then everyone is exposed to risk if they enter the restaurant.

They also say that the suit is a "thinly veiled attempt" to bypass the state legislature, which has already voted against a statewide smoking ban. However, Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine said earlier this month that he wants to pass a statewide smoking ban this session.

Mr. Bogden's suit is an unusual legal move, but there have been a few similar cases in the past, according to a Connecticut Law Review article published last month.

On the other side of the Potomac, in 1997, three women with asthma sued Ruby Tuesday's restaurants in Gaithersburg and Rockville and a Red Lobster in Rockville. They said their asthma prevented them from enjoying the restaurants as other people could. The case was settled out of court.

The Senate Committee on Education and Health passed a series of bills this morning that offer legislators and local officials a variety of ways to ban smoking in public areas such as restaurants.

The three bills, each approved by a 12-3 vote, offer three approaches:

- Ban smoking in all areas except for private homes, cars, private clubs, motel rooms designated for smoking, specialty tobacco stores, tobacco manufacturers and certain rooms in nursing homes and long-term care facilities.
- Ban smoking in restaurants and bars.
- Offer counties, cities and towns the option to pass ordinances banning smoking within their boundaries.

“This is not a business issue, this isn’t a property rights issue,” said Sen. Janet Howell, D-Fairfax County. “This is a health issue.”

Any bill to ban smoking faces large obstacles, particularly in the House of Delegates. Each of the last two years, proposed smoking bans have been killed by House committees.

Barrett Hardiman, speaking for the Virginia Hospitality and Travel Association, said that according to the state health department, two-thirds of Virginia restaurants are already smoke-free.

“There are choices out there for people who want to dine or work in a non-smoking environment,” Hardiman said.

But ban advocates said the three bills address a major health issue: secondhand smoke. The U.S. Surgeon General issued a report last year saying there was no safe exposure. Ban advocates also cited a poll released Wednesday showing that 75 percent of Virginia voters favor a statewide law prohibiting smoking inside all public buildings and workplaces.

Megan Rash, a Randolph Macon College student from Danville who has worked in several different restaurants, told the committee her health had suffered because of her job.

“Our health is put on the line for a standard wage of $2.13 per hour,” she said.

“We don’t get paid enough to put our health, and ultimately our lives, on the line. For many of us, working in a restaurant is not a choice, it’s the best way we know to make a living."

Senate Majority Leader Richard Saslaw, D-Fairfax County, said the state has a right to intercede in health issues. He said Virginia already tells restaurant owners how to store and prepare food. Saslaw said Whipple’s bill is no different.

“People’s ability and rights to smoke stop at my nose,” Saslaw said. “They don’t have a right to intrude on my space.”

The Senate Committee on Education and Health passed a series of bills Thursday that offer legislators and local officials a variety of ways to ban smoking in public areas such as restaurants.

The three bills, each approved by a 12-3 vote, offer different approaches to smoking:

Senate Bill 298 bans smoking in all areas except for private homes, cars, private clubs, motel rooms designated for smoking, specialty tobacco stores, tobacco manufacturers and certain rooms in nursing homes and long-term care facilities.

SB 501 bans smoking in restaurants and bars.

SB 202 offers counties, cities and towns the option to pass ordinances banning smoking within their boundaries.

"This is not a business issue, this isn't a property rights issue," said Sen. Janet Howell, D-Fairfax County. "This is a health issue."

Any bill to ban smoking faces large obstacles, particularly in the House of Delegates. Each of the past two years, proposed smoking bans have been killed by House committees. Del. Tom Gear, R-Hampton, who chairs the House subcommittee to which the bills will likely head if they're passed by the full Senate, said he hasn't yet read the legislation.

"I always keep an open mind," Gear said. "I've got one of the most open minds in the whole House."

Opponents of the smoking bans argued that they trample on the liberties of the owners of restaurants and other buildings that would be affected. They said the free market is already moving toward more smoke-free restaurants and there's no need for a state-enforced ban.

Glynn Loope, representing the Cigar Association of Virginia, cited the Roanoke City Market area as "living proof of how the free market is supposed to work.

"Every new restaurant that has opened in the Roanoke Valley in recent memory has opened smoke-free," Loope said.

Barrett Hardiman, speaking for the Virginia Hospitality and Travel Association, said that according to the state health department, two-thirds of Virginia restaurants are already smoke-free.

"There are choices out there for people who want to dine or work in a nonsmoking environment," Hardiman said.

But ban advocates said the three bills address secondhand smoke, which they consider to be a major health issue. The United States surgeon general issued a report last year saying there was no safe exposure. Ban advocates also cited a poll released Wednesday showing that 75 percent of Virginia voters favor a statewide law prohibiting smoking inside all public buildings and workplaces.

Megan Rash, a Randolph-Macon Woman's College student from Danville who's worked in several restaurants, told the committee her health had suffered from her job.

"Our health is put on the line for a standard wage of $2.13 per hour," Rash said.

"We don't get paid enough to put our health, and ultimately our lives on the line. For many of us, working in a restaurant is not a choice, it's the best way we know to make a living" Rash said.

Senate Majority Leader Richard Saslaw, D-Fairfax County, said the state has a right to intercede in health issues. He said Virginia already tells restaurant owners how to store and prepare food.

"People's ability and rights to smoke stop at my nose," Saslaw said. "They don't have a right to intrude on my space."

"Yeah, people have choices. But when this state is picking up the health care costs of these people who quote, 'want these choices,' we have the right to intervene, because we're paying for it, and we're paying a heavy, heavy price for it," Saslaw said.

Gov. Tim Kaine also defended the proposed bans Thursday morning during his monthly call-in radio show on the Virginia News Network. A restaurant owner called the program and challenged Kaine on the subject, arguing that his business should not be singled out for a smoking ban.

The governor disagreed, saying, "I think restaurants are different."

"Why not eliminate the rule that says, you know, people have to wash their hands or that they have to wear hairnets in kitchens?" Kaine asked rhetorically. "We do all kinds of things in restaurants and have health expectations in restaurants and send health inspectors into them that we don't send into other kinds of businesses. Why is that? It's because the public wants there to be a heightened sense of health in restaurants."

Last year, after the House passed a smoking bill that did away with no-smoking sections while requiring signs for restaurants that allow smoking, Kaine amended it into an outright smoking ban.

House Majority Leader Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, said Kaine's changes last year make it unlikely that a House committee would work hard to find a compromise if it might be changed again.

"I think there's a real hesitancy to go through that kind of battle again," Griffith said.

A broad ban on smoking in most public buildings passed out of a Senate committee Thursday, but senators also passed more narrow restrictions in case the sweeping prohibition doesn't get support.

Members of the Senate Education and Health Committee also approved bills to ban smoking in restaurants and bars, to allow localities to enact ordinances regarding smoking and to give some Hampton Roads localities the authority to enact bans.

Sen. Mary Margaret Whipple's bill would apply to restaurants, banks, sporting arenas, shopping malls and other public places but would exclude hotel rooms designated for smoking, specialty tobacco stores and private rooms in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities.

Her proposal goes further than Gov. Timothy M. Kaine had wanted. Kaine prefers legislation sponsored by Sen. Mamie Locke of Hampton and Sen. Ralph Northam of Norfolk to ban smoking in restaurants and bars, excluding outdoor eating areas.

"That's the only bill he's supporting," Kaine spokesman Gordon Hickey said.

Doctors, health advocates and a waitress who suffers from asthma spoke in support of banning smoking in all public buildings as an effort to protect workers from deadly secondhand smoke. They cited figures suggesting that in addition to the 9,000 Virginians who die each year from smoking, another 1,000 die due to secondhand smoke.

Lobbyists representing restaurants, hotels and businesses argued the decision should be left up to business owners. Two-thirds of the restaurants in Virginia already are smoke-free, they said.

"This is not a business issue. It is not a property-rights issue. It is a health issue," countered Sen. Janet Howell, D-Fairfax.

All four bills passed 12-3. The full Senate could consider them next week.

A Senate panel on Thursday endorsed a broad anti-smoking bill as well as one aimed at restaurants, but the real test should come next week in the House of Delegates.

Passage in the Senate came after testimony from doctors, activists and Megan Rash, a 20-year-old junior from Randolph-Macon College. She is working her way through school as a waitress and has been sickened by breathing secondhand smoke.

"Smoking is a choice," she said. "Breathing is a way of life."

The broader bill, sponsored by Sen. Mary Margaret Whipple, D-Arlington, would ban smoking in all public places. The restaurant bill is a joint effort from two Hampton Roads Democrats: Mamie Locke of Hampton and Ralph Northam of Norfolk.

Both bills cleared the panel on 12-3 votes and will go to the Senate floor. Passage there would send the measures to their real test: The House General Laws Committee and its subcommittee chaired by Del. Tom Gear, R-Hampton.

Last year, that six-member panel voted unanimously to kill legislation that banned smoking in restaurants and other public places. This year, anti-smoking activists face virtually the same subcommittee; only one member has changed.

"I would be surprised if there were much change from last year," said Gear, when asked how the Senate bills might fare. "I don't think anyone has changed their minds. So I'm assuming the smoking bills are not going to go out of committee."

The decision could effectively happen next Thursday when Gear's panel is set to consider House versions of the anti-smoking bills. That would probably indicate the fate of the Senate bills.

Barrett Hardiman, a spokesman for the Virginia Hospitality and Travel Association, said consumers and workers could choose between smoke-free restaurants and those that allow it.

Most senators on the panel did not buy that argument. Whipple said the rights of smokers are secondary to the right of people to enjoy good health.

Dr. William Hazel Jr., past president of the Medical Society of Virginia, hammered home that point when he listed the ingredients found in secondhand smoke. That includes chemicals found in toilet cleaner, ant poison, lighter fluid, rocket fuel, mothballs, sewer gas, batteries and the radioactive element used to fatally poison a former Russian spy.

"The battle over the evidence has been won," Hazel said. "Exposure to secondhand smoke is a proven health hazard, a serious health hazard and a preventable health hazard."

The Senate panel also endorsed a bill from Sen. Fred Quayle, R-Suffolk, to allow localities to ban smoking in restaurants. Sen. Harry Blevins, R-Chesapeake, won committee approval of a bill that allows his home city to ban restaurant smoking. Gear's subcommittee will consider several House anti-smoking bills ...

The cloud of tobacco smoke that hovers in some restaurants across the state would vanish if a bill sponsored by two Hampton Roads senators becomes law.

A measure being carried by Sens. Mamie Locke, D-Hampton, and Ralph Northam, D-Norfolk, SB501, is the restaurant smoking ban bill that Gov. Timothy M. Kaine supports.

A similar measure failed last year, but Kaine, a Democrat, has banned smoking in state government offices and vehicles.

Northam, a pediatric neurologist, said he narrowed his legislation to give it a greater chance to pass, but he also supports a Senate bill that would ban smoking in most public places.

"In the event that doesn't move forward, I still want the restaurant ban to go forward," Northam said.

Sen. Mary Margaret Whipple, D-Arlington, is the patron of SB298, which would restrict smoking inside most public places.

Barrett Hardiman, director of government relations for the Virginia Hospitality & Travel Association, said such bills would hurt businesses that allow patrons to smoke indoors.

"There's been a discussion of rights, whether or not a smoker's rights trump a nonsmoker's rights," he said. "But there hasn't been any discussion of property owners' rights and business owners' rights and I would ask you to take those into consideration."

A representative from the Virginia Retail Merchants Association also spoke against the bills.

Locke said 25 other states and Washington, D.C., prohibit smoking in restaurants, and those measures have not had an adverse impact on business.

Sen. Richard Saslaw said pro-smoking arguments based on individual rights are invalid when it comes to others' health.

"Their civil rights stop at my nose," he said. "They don't have a right to intrude on my space."

Another smoking ban proposal that advanced Thursday is by Sen. Frederick Quayle, R-Suffolk.

His SB202 would give local governments the ability to adopt smoking bans in their communities if a statewide bill fails.

"Recognizing the realities of what could happen up here, I would at least like to give the localities in the Hampton Roads area (the ability) to enact a ban if there are other areas of the state who don't want it," Quayle said.

Legislation banning smoking in public is headed to the Virginia Senate but could be snuffed out in the House of Delegates.

The Senate Education and Health Committee yesterday backed several bills making it harder to light up, though each takes a different approach.

Playing out in a state where tobacco was once king, the fight over smoking in public largely pits health-care advocates against the hospitality industry.

Doctors say cutting exposure to secondhand smoke saves lives. Some restaurateurs counter that they should be free to accommodate patrons who smoke.

"Their civil rights end at my nose," said Senate Majority Leader Richard L. Saslaw, D-Fairfax, a member of the Education and Health Committee.

Barrett Hardiman of the Virginia Hospitality & Travel Association, cited state figures showing two-thirds of Virginia restaurants segregate smokers from others.

"There are choices out there for people who want to dine -- and work -- smoke-free," Hardiman said.

But bills sent to the Senate would ban smoking in many public places. Having failed last year, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine again is trying to win such restrictions.

Senate Bill 298, by Sen. Mary Margaret Whipple, D-Arlington, covers banks, sports arenas, restaurants and shopping malls. It would exclude hotel rooms and tobacco shops.

Whipple's bill goes further than one favored by Kaine -- that's Senate Bill 501 by Sens. Mamie E. Locke, D-Hampton, and Sen. Ralph S. Northam, D-Norfolk.

Kaine prefers that restrictions apply to bars and restaurants but not outdoor eating areas, such as hot-dog stands.

A third measure, Senate Bill 202 by Sen. Frederick M. Quayle, R-Chesapeake, would give localities the option of enacting smoking bans.

With passage in the Democrat-dominated Senate expected, the battle over a smoking ban is likely to be decided in the Republican-run House.

A Virginia Senate subcommittee took a firm stand for health by blessing the strongest of three proposed public smoking bans earlier this week.

The measure, Senate Bill 298, would ban smoking in restaurants and most other public places. Homes, private clubs, tobacco shops, nursing homes and motel rooms designated for smokers would be exempt.

A smoking ban is no longer risky business. Twenty-nine states, including Tennessee, have adopted some form of statewide restrictions. These laws range from prohibitions on smoking in restaurants only to broad-based workplace smoking bans.

Senate Bill 298, sponsored by Sen. Mary Margaret Whipple, D-Arlington, falls somewhere in the middle of the spectrum of such bans. It would provide protection from occupational exposure to secondhand smoke for most Virginia workers and would protect the rights of non-smokers to enjoy a restaurant meal free from dirty air.

Science supports this legislation. Secondhand smoke exposure causes lung cancer in non-smoking adults, exacerbates asthma in adults and children, raises the risk of heart disease and is a known risk factor for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

In fact, the Environmental Protection Agency reports that 3,000 non-smoking Americans die each year of lung cancer as a result of secondhand smoke exposure.

Such grim facts leave little doubt why the vast majority of Virginians, including plenty of former smokers, support a public smoking ban, particularly in restaurants. Polls indicate more than 70 percent support for such bans, even in a traditional tobacco belt state like Virginia.

Virginia came close to enacting a restaurant smoking ban last year. The measure passed the Senate, which had also approved similar legislation in 2006, but was killed in the House.

The House, which is still controlled by Republicans, will be the challenge again this year. We urge Republicans to reconsider their squeamish feelings about government regulations and act to protect the health of their children and grandchildren. What could be more important?

Cigarette smoke isn’t just a nuisance; it’s a poison.

At the Senate subcommittee hearing, Dr. William A. Hazel Jr., past president of the Medical Society of Virginia, detailed the appalling list of carcinogens and other toxic chemicals contained in cigarette smoke – acetone (the active ingredient in nail polish remover), ammonia, arsenic and even traces of polonium-210, the radioactive element that was used to kill a former KGB spy in Great Britain. Those are just a few of the hundreds (some say thousands) of identifiable chemicals in smoke.

Adult smokers can choose to ingest such poisons if they wish, but the state should not be complicit in allowing them to expose others to this wicked brew.

Enough’s enough. It’s time for Virginia to join the 21st century mainstream and adopt a sensible smoking ban to protect the health and welfare of its residents.

A Senate subcommittee endorsed the most restrictive of three potential indoor smoking bans on Monday.

The trio of variations includes:

Senate Bill 202, which gives each Virginia locality the choice of whether to ban smoking.
SB 501, which bans it in restaurants.
SB 298, which bans smoking in just about all indoor areas except for private homes.

The Senate Education and Health Committee subgroup voted 3-2 to recommend the last bill.

Sen. George Barker, D-Fairfax County, was a key vote in the subcommittee favoring the more restrictive SB 298.

"This is a public health initiative," Barker said. "That's why I think it needs to be addressed broadly rather than more narrowly."

Sen. John Miller, D-Newport News, said that over the course of the debate during the past few years, he has changed his mind on the issue.

"I started this journey believing that government is too intrusive in our lives to begin with and that we ought not to be telling private business people how to run their businesses, especially regarding a legal activity," Miller said. "It has been very difficult for me, but I believe the science as a former smoker. I think there's a greater good. If we're going to protect the citizens of the commonwealth, this is a great way to do it."

Any bill to ban smoking will likely face stiff challenges. In 2006 and 2007, then-Sen. Brandon Bell of Roanoke County made a smoking ban similar to SB 298 the main priority of his legislative agenda but his effort went unrewarded.

Sen. Frank Ruff, R-Mecklenburg County, is one of the subcommittee members who voted Monday against any smoking ban -- and for one of the main reasons the legislation has been hard to pass. Ruff, whose district includes many Southside tobacco farmers, said he believes that private business owners can take care of the issue on their own.

"Every week more and more restaurants are dropping allowing people to smoke," Ruff said. "I think it's a major mistake to take law enforcement and put them in this kind of setting when the market will take care of itself."

The real test for any bill to ban smoking will be how it does in the House. The past two years smoking bills have failed to clear the committee level there.

The full Senate committee is expected to take up the smoking bills when it meets Thursday.

... health advocates are again pushing for a new law to end smoking in buildings where people eat and drink, but this is the first year they've had a governor leading the charge from the beginning.

White-coated doctors last week coolly explained the risks in stomach-turning detail to the Senate Education and Health Committee. Consider this list of deadly compounds in second-hand smoke that Dr. William A. Hazel Jr. recited to the panel.

"Acetone, or nail-polish remover. Ammonia, which is a toilet cleaner. Arsenic. Ant poison. Butane, which is in cigarette lighters. Cadmium, used in batteries. Carbon monoxide, the poison in car exhaust. Methane, or sewer gas ...," said Hazel, a past Medical Society of Virginia president.

Even traces of polonium-210, the radioactive element used to kill former KGB officer and Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko in 2006, can be found in cigarette smoke, he said.

Medical science notwithstanding, passing the legislation is improbable considering the broad political support tobacco still retains. Richmond is, after all, home to Philip Morris' cigarette factory, the world's largest.

Tobacco companies and tobacco growers contributed $287,000 while restaurants gave about $218,000 to candidates in the 2007 House of Delegates and state Senate elections, according to the Virginia Public Access Project, an independent, nonprofit tracker of money in state politics.

Philip Morris opposes the bill, preferring instead that restaurateurs and barkeepers banish smoking as a result of market conditions, not government fiat. Even supporters of the bill acknowledge that as many as 80 percent of the state's eateries have gone smoke-free to attract a clientele increasingly averse to smoke.

Virginia Hospitality and Travel Association lobbyist Thomas A. Lisk made a similar point to the committee last week, noting that restaurants are going smoke-free in growing numbers on their own.

Many legislators in both parties understand the sentiment.

"It seems to me that the marketplace is determining this issue already, regardless of what the General Assembly does or doesn't do," said Sen. R. Edward Houck, who chairs the Senate committee. "The market is responsive to customer interests."

Tobacco, however, is far from the dominant cash crop it once was in Virginia . It dates to the first settlement in Jamestown . It was so vital to the from Colonial times into the 20th century that ceiling murals in the 200-year-old Capitol rotunda depict garlands of the golden-brown leaf.

Tobacco production decreased from 53,000 acres and total value of $207.5 million in 1997 to less than 20,000 acres and $71 million in value in 2006, the latest year for which U.S. Department of Agriculture statistics are available.

Houck knows the stats. He has seen tobacco's influence gradually ebb.

"The tobacco lobby represents a smaller part of Virginia geographically," said Houck, D-Spotsylvania. "The whole tobacco industry has diminished in Virginia , and where it's diminished is as the urban and suburban areas have grown. The public is getting more concerned with the use of tobacco."

Until four years ago, efforts to increase Virginia 's 2.5 cents-per-pack tax on cigarettes--then the nation's lowest--had failed perennially, too. But in the midst of a state fiscal crisis, taxing an unhealthy habit became more palatable and legislators reluctantly boosted the tax by 27.5 cents to save an out-of-balance budget.

Former Gov. Mark R. Warner led that battle. His successor, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, a fellow Democrat, leads this one.

Kaine said his first interest was the workers who inhale the smoke of others on the job and suffer health consequences later.

"Traditionally, I'm against a complete ban on all smoking in all public facilities," Kaine said in an Associated Press interview.

The governor said the legislation has a chance this year, citing efforts the first two years of his term to restrict smoking. When he issued an executive order to ban smoking in all government buildings shortly after he took office, he said, "I was surprised that I didn't get pushback from the tobacco industry."

He was even more encouraged last spring after he amended a bill that would have allowed smoking only in restaurants that display conspicuously posted signs that say "Smoking Permitted." Kaine toughened it into an outright restaurant smoking prohibition. The House rejected the amendment, on a 59-40 vote.

"I was surprised it got as many votes as it got, and a lot of delegates came up to me afterward and said, 'Hey, we didn't vote against this just to vote against it. You change a few details here and there and we might be able to support it,"' Kaine said.

Where there's smoking in public, there's a firefight among health advocates, tobacco companies and restaurant owners.

"I get the whole Virginia thing about preserving our personal freedom," said Julia Torres Barden of Chesterfield County, holding up a copy of the U.S. Constitution. "But I can't find an article or amendment that guarantees the right to smoke."

Barden, an asthmatic whose 18-year-old son suffers from a genetic disorder that makes his lungs particularly sensitive to smoke, was among an estimated 80 people who turned out last night for a public hearing on state Senate legislation to further restrict smoking in public.

"I don't buy the argument that our state government doesn't have the right to ban smoking in public for fear of trampling on one's personal liberty," Barden said.

The Senate Education and Health Committee is expected to vote on the measures next week.

Lobbyists for the hospitality and tobacco industries are again pressing to derail the bills, saying that restaurants and other businesses should decide whether to go smoke-free.

Restaurants that seat 50 or more patrons are now required by state law to segregate smokers from others.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine favors tougher controls on smoking in public. In a legislative shootout over restrictions last year, Kaine ultimately vetoed a measure that, at one point, required restaurants that allow smoking to post signs reading "smoking permitted," and in return, do away with non-smoking seating.

Chris Savvides, proprietor of the Black Angus restaurant in Virginia Beach, said his five-decade-old establishment has prohibited smoking since 2006. It's a way, he said, to keep customers and attract others.

Allowing eateries to voluntarily go smoke-free, Savvides said, "is more rapid, more efficient and more equitable."

Barrett Hardiman, government relations director for the Virginia Hospitality and Travel Association -- citing state health department figures -- estimated that two-thirds of Virginia restaurants are either smoke-free or limit smoking.

FIVE YEARS ago, just two states in the nation banned smoking in bars, restaurants and other workplaces and gathering spots. Today 22 states plus the District and Puerto Rico have adopted such bans ... and that number will rise to 23 when Maryland's prohibition, signed into law by Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) last spring, takes effect Feb. 1.

Memo to Virginia's House of Delegates: Wake up and smell the fresh air.

Last year, the Old Dominion's lower house, which sometimes seems stuck in an older, mustier era, refused to go along with a similar prohibition urged by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D). Instead, the House thumbed its nose at the governor, the state Senate and untold thousands of nonsmoking employees and patrons of bars and restaurants around the state. It passed a bill that would have required restaurants that already allow smoking to post a "Smoking Permitted" sign on the door; in return for suffering that terrible hardship, the restaurants would no longer be obliged to offer a nonsmoking section. Mr. Kaine wisely vetoed the bill.

Once, Virginia's pro-smoking lawmakers might have argued that the science on secondhand smoke was inconclusive. They have no such option today, as the ill effects of secondhand smoke are extensively documented. Instead, some lawmakers fall back on the insipid pretext that since most Virginia restaurants already prohibit smoking, there is no use in forcing the rest of them to follow suit. But what of the bartenders and servers and kitchen workers who may have no better employment options and consequently no choice but to work in a smoke-filled workplace? Are their chronic coughs, irritated nostrils and babies with low birth weights simply the collateral damage of the House's obstructionism?

Mr. Kaine, to his credit, signed an executive order in 2006 banning smoking in all state buildings and vehicles. He is pushing to extend the prohibition to bars and restaurants, noting that secondhand smoke kills an estimated 1,700 Virginians every year. It is possible that he may be blocked again this year by lawmakers from places where tobacco remains king. But they should be aware that the tide of history, science and good governance is running strongly against them.

For the third year in a row, Virginia lawmakers have the opportunity to strike a blow for better health by banning smoking in restaurants.

We urge them to pass the ban. Lawmakers must stand up for state residents – a majority of whom support the ban – and quit performing acts of obeisance to the tobacco industry.

Big tobacco has greased the skids of Virginia government to the tune of $5.46 million in campaign contributions since 1993. Last year, tobacco companies gave $406,309 to their allies in the state legislature.

Is it any wonder that lawmakers keep killing the smoking ban?

But the battle is about to be joined again. This year the restaurant smoking ban has the backing of Gov. Tim Kaine, who unveiled the proposed legislation on Monday. Kaine’s support has been squishy in the past.

In an improbable, but praiseworthy, turn of events, Tennessee lawmakers summoned the courage to pass a broad workplace smoking ban last year. Volunteer State restaurants officially went smoke-free in October.

Dining out in Tennessee is now a more pleasant experience. But restaurant patrons aren’t the only beneficiaries of the ban; they’re not even the primary ones. Restaurant workers – who can spend an entire shift inhaling carcinogen-laden air – are the ones who will see the most dramatic health improvements.

The Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine reports that food service workers have a 50 percent greater risk of dying from lung cancer than the general population, in part because of second-hand smoke exposure on the job.

Virginia lawmakers have a duty to protect restaurant workers and the general public, including children, from the dangers of second-hand smoke.

The Virginia Senate has twice approved a restaurant smoking ban, but the measure has been killed in the House. In 2006, six House members killed the ban in a committee without a recorded vote. Last year, the ban made it to the House floor, where it was again dispatched.

Two local lawmakers, Sen. Phillip Puckett and Delegate Joe Johnson, voted in favor of the ban in the last session. We applaud their courage.

The rest of the local delegation deserves not applause but closer scrutiny. Delegates Dan Bowling, Bill Carrico, Terry Kilgore and Bud Phillips and Sen. William Wampler voted against the ban.

All of them took money from the tobacco industry. Their haul of tobacco-tainted loot over the past decade breaks down as follows: Wampler, $13,292; Kilgore, $11,600; Phillips, $7,206; Carrico, $4,250; and Bowling, $1,500, according to the Virginia Public Access Project.

The tobacco industry isn’t spreading all this cash around because of its magnanimous spirit. The industry wants to buy influence. So far, the plan seems to be working.

Now, our lawmakers might object to the insinuation that they are selling their votes. Fine. Prove us wrong. Align yourselves with the majority of Virginians, who want to breathe clean air while they dine out. Repudiate big tobacco and its deep pockets. Pass the ban.

BRISTOL, Va. – Roy Wesley decided to ban smoking in the Pepperjack Grille after he noticed a shortage of smoke-free restaurants in the area.

Soon, he may see a serious increase in competition with his Bristol Virginia eatery.

An effort to make all restaurants in Virginia smoke-free once again will be pushed by Gov. Tim Kaine in the Virginia General Assembly, which convened Wednesday.

The legislation aims to protect the health of restaurant employees who are exposed to large amount of second-hand smoke while on the job. Yet, the potential for a forced ban has divided area restaurant workers and owners.

The solution seems simple for Elizabeth Justus, the bar manager at Fast Lane, a sports bar in Bristol, Va.

"If you want to be at a restaurant that’s non-smoking, go to a non-smoking restaurant," she said.

Justus guesses that 90 percent of Fast Lane’s customers light up. The negative impact a smoking ban would have on business outweighs the opportunity to work in a healthier environment, she said.

Diners at Wither’s Hardware in Abingdon, Va., can choose to sit in either the smoking or non-smoking sections of the restaurant.

Hazel Ramos-Cano said she wants to see smoking banned in restaurants, although she knows it will cost her business.

"I know it will impact me [financially], I’m not ignorant. But New York and California did it and nobody died," she said.

Virginia would be the 29th state to have legislation forbidding smoking in restaurants. A law prohibiting smoking in all enclosed public areas went into effect in Tennessee on Oct 1.

The "non-smoker protection act" offers a loophole for restaurants in Tennessee to continue to allow smoking if all employees and patrons are at least 21 years old. Kaine’s legislation has no similar stipulations, staff members at the governor’s office said.

The governor’s new proposition, announced Monday, builds on a similar bill that failed in the legislature last year. The major change is a more clear, all-encomposing definition of a restaurant.

The bill calls for a ban only in restaurants, which are defined as "any food establishment – including dining establishments of public and private clubs – where food is available for sale and consumption by the public and includes the areas of a restaurant where food is prepared, served or consumed," according to a release on the governor’s Web site.

For now, restaurant-goers who prefer a smoke-free environment are left with restaurants that have decided independently to ban smoking, like the Pepperjack Grille.

Angie Wright, a manager at Pepperjack, said she’s not encountered a customer who objected to the no-smoking rules since the restaurant opened two months ago.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine called for a statewide smoking ban in restaurants and bars Monday, but excluded outdoor eating areas in hopes that legislators won't again shoot down the proposal.

Kaine tried to implement a ban last year, but lawmakers rejected the measure because they said it was so broad it would have ended smoking at county fairs, hot dog stands and anywhere people pay for prepared food.

Kaine's new proposal would ban smoking in areas inside restaurants and public and private clubs where food is prepared, served or eaten but allows businesses to have a smoking section outdoors, unless the exterior can be enclosed.

Opponents argue that decision should be left up to businesses.

"I think that the restaurant community and the business community in general still remain opposed to the governor's proposal," said Tom Lisk, a lobbyist for the Virginia Retail Merchants Association and the Virginia Hospitality and Travel Association.

Kaine announced his proposed ban at a smoke-free Virginia Beach restaurant. He was joined at the Hot Tuna Bar & Grill by local elected officials, public health advocates and a group that represents restaurants in the city in calling for the ban as a means to protect workers and patrons from secondhand smoke.

"The scientific evidence about the health risks associated with exposure to secondhand smoke is clear and convincing," Kaine said.

Levels of secondhand smoke in restaurants and bars are two to five times higher than in residences with smokers and two to six times higher than in office workplaces, according to the American Lung Association.

Secondhand smoke is responsible for 1,700 deaths per year in Virginia , the state Department of Health estimates. Virginia also spends an estimated $124.9 million a year on health care related to secondhand smoke exposure, according to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

Philip Morris spokesman Bill Phelps said restaurant owners, not the government, are most familiar with how to accommodate their patrons.

"We agree that people should be able to avoid being around secondhand smoke, especially in places where they must go ... but we maintain that complete bans go too far," Phelps said.

Sen.-elect Ralph Northam, D-Norfolk and a pediatric neurologist, will sponsor Kaine's proposal in the Senate.

Del. David Englin, D-Alexandria, filed a bill last week that would allow localities to decide whether to ban smoking in restaurants.

Englin said he would love to see a statewide ban, but he wanted at the very least to allow communities to decide for themselves.

"I live in a community that has been trying to ban smoking in restaurants for a long time, but because of the way the state law works we don't have the power to do that, so at a minimum localities should be able to do that themselves," he said.

The General Assembly passed legislation last year that would have required restaurants that allow smoking to post a "Smoking Permitted" sign on the door, and in return they would no longer have to offer a nonsmoking section.

Kaine amended the bill to ban smoking in restaurants statewide. The House of Delegates voted 59-40 to reject the amendment, so Kaine vetoed the bill.

Staunton ’s Depot Grille went to a smoke-free environment 18 months ago, and Manager Erin Smith said the response has been positive.

“A lot of customers wanted it,” Smith said Monday.

The restaurant had previously only allowed smoking at its bar.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine renewed his legislative request Monday for a statewide ban on smoking in Virginia restaurants, including public and private clubs.

The ban would include any area of public or private clubs where food is available and includes the restaurant areas where the food is prepared, served or consumed. The ban would be indoors only.

Kaine ... said the health risks associated with secondhand smoke offer convincing evidence for the ban.

“Recognizing the negative health effects and high public costs of secondhand smoke, Virginia must act to protect the workers and consumers in its restaurants,” Kaine said.

The Virginia Department of Health estimates that 1,700 deaths a year are caused by secondhand smoke in the commonwealth.

The Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids says Virginia spends $124.9 million a year on health-care expenditures related to secondhand smoke exposure.

Smith said the Depot’s smoke-free environment attracted employees who wanted to get away from cigarette smoke.

Another Staunton restaurant owner, Jennifer Lynch of the Baja Bean, said operating a bar without smoking would be tricky.

She said such a prohibition could lead to smokers cutting back on cigarette consumption. But it could also affect bar business at her restaurant.

“A lot of people who smoke do so when they drink,” she said. Lynch said many of her employees are smokers.

Area legislators don’t favor the Kaine bill.

Del. Chris Saxman, R-Staunton, said he prefers a smoke-free environment in a restaurant, but does not think all restaurants should have a smoking ban.

“I don’t support a ban on every place. I’m a bigger fan of someone’s liberty to smoke,” he said.

Saxman said it is a case of government going too far.

“If I don’t like something on TV, I don’t watch it. I rent the movies and watch the movies I want to,” he said.

Both Saxman and Del. Steve Landes said they voted against the legislation a year ago and will do so again.

Landes, R-Weyers Cave , said while many restaurants are voluntarily elminating smoking, they should have the option to allow it.

“If a business wants to cater to smokers, shouldn’t they be able to do it?” Landes said.

Gordon Hickey, Kaine’s press secretary, said the restaurant industry is already heavily regulated.

And he said none of the 25 states that have already insituted a similar ban on restaurant smoking has repealed it.

“It [smoking ban] has been done quite a lot around the country and no one has regretted or repealed it,” he said.

Gov. Tim Kaine called for a statewide ban on smoking in restaurants Monday, saying Virginia must protect workers and diners from the perils of secondhand smoke.

Kaine's proposal continues a debate that has grown in intensity over the past two years, but this is the first time the governor has taken the lead on the issue. Kaine made his latest pitch for a smoking ban just two days before the General Assembly begins its 2008 session.

"The scientific evidence about the health risks associated with exposure to secondhand smoke is clear and convincing," Kaine said in a prepared statement. "Recognizing the negative health effects and high public costs of secondhand smoke, Virginia must act to protect the workers and consumers in its restaurants."

Kaine announced his proposal at Hot Tuna Bar & Grill, a smoke-free restaurant in Virginia Beach. The restaurant's co-owner supports a smoking ban, and some Hampton Roads localities are seeking legislative approval to impose their own smoking restrictions.

Virginia has a rich tobacco heritage, but support for indoor smoking restrictions has increased in recent years because of health concerns associated with secondhand smoke. The issue has generated heated debate in each of the past two legislative sessions.

The Senate passed a broad indoor smoking ban in 2006, but a House of Delegates subcommittee killed the bill. The bill's sponsor, Sen. Brandon Bell, R-Roanoke County , was defeated in a primary last year by Sen.-elect Ralph Smith, R-Botetourt County .

Kaine made an eleventh-hour push for a restaurant smoking ban last year by rewriting a House bill sponsored by Del. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem. The House rejected Kaine's proposal, with opponents arguing that it would have applied to venues such as hot dog stands and catered receptions that fall under the state's definition of a restaurant.

Kaine's new proposal would narrow the definition of a restaurant so that smoking would be prohibited in dining establishments, including public and private clubs where food is prepared, served or eaten. Exterior dining areas and catered events would be exempt from the smoking ban, according to the governor's office. Violators could face civil penalties.

"The real issue is going to be how it's drafted," said Griffith , the House majority leader.

Griffith sponsored a bill last year that would have eliminated requirements for restaurants to have nonsmoking sections and prevented them from allowing smoking unless they posted "smoking permitted" signs at every entrance. Kaine vetoed the bill after the House rejected his changes.

Antismoking advocates applauded Kaine's proposal while holding out hope that lawmakers will support a comprehensive indoor smoking ban. Del. Phil Hamilton, R-Newport News, has introduced legislation to ban smoking in most indoor public places.

Tom Lisk, a lobbyist for the Virginia Hospitality and Travel Association, said the state should not single out restaurants if secondhand smoke is a public health concern. Lisk said about two-thirds of the association's members, including those that voluntarily ban smoking, oppose a restaurant-only prohibition.

Bruce Morrow, owner of the Community Inn Restaurant in Roanoke , said the law should not be changed.

"I think I'd leave the darn thing alone," he said. "Let the people make up their own minds. Don't force it down somebody's throat."

But Nikki Henry, general manager at Awful Arthur's Seafood Company in downtown Roanoke , said she would not object to a smoking ban "as long as it's even across the board."

"As long as we're in the same boat as all the other restaurants in the valley, we're happy," she said.

Asked whether she feels employees of the restaurant are bothered by the smoke, Henry said: "The folks we have here, they're used to it, especially in a place like ours where the bar is so close. They know when they walk in and apply for the job what they're getting into. Customer-wise, there are a lot of people that would like to see them [restaurants] nonsmoking."

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine’s plan to ban smoking in restaurants would give the state government too much of a Big Brother image, according to local Republicans.

Kaine’s latest proposal would apply to public and private dining establishments. The bill states that secondhand smoke kills too many people and costs taxpayers millions in health care.

Last year, the governor signed an executive order banning smoking in all state buildings and vehicles to reduce health risks in the workplace.

Delegate Donald Merricks, R-Pittsylvania County , doesn’t smoke, but said he doesn’t think it’s the government’s business to take on theissue.

Merricks said the ban could hurt a restaurant’s customer base by alienating smokers. He said if smoking is a concern, it’s better to leave the decision about where to dine up to the customer.

Delegate Danny Marshall, R-Danville, said restaurants already have the option of banning smoking without the government’s involvement.

“Does the government need to tell citizens and businesses what to do?” Marshall asked.

The governor, however, contends the risk factors of secondhand smoke warrant the government’s attention.

“The scientific evidence about the health risks associated with exposure to secondhand smoke is clear and convincing,” Kaine said in a prepared statement. “Recognizing the negative health effects and high public costs of secondhand smoke, Virginia must act to protect the workers and consumers in its restaurants.”

Secondhand smoke is responsible for about 1,700 deaths each year and costs about $125 million in health-related expenses, according to the Virginia Department of Health.

Kaine said restaurant and bar secondhand smoke levels were two to five times higher than in residences with smokers and two to six times higher than in office workplaces.

Food service employees are at a 50 percent greater risk of dying from lung cancer than the general population due to secondhand smoke exposure in the workplace, according to a news release from the governor’s office.

Kaine’s proposal would exempt a restaurant with an exterior dining area, unless the area can be enclosed.

Clifton Glasscock, general manager of Buffalo Wild Wings, said a ban wouldn’t hurt the restaurant’s business because people could smoke on the patio. He said the move could drive people to restaurants that have outdoor areas for smoking.

Bill Kirios, owner of Schoolfield Lunch, said he has a lot of customers who smoke in his restaurant, but there are a lot who don’t smoke.

“If the governor says ban all smoking, I’ll abide by the law,” Kirios said Monday. “Until then, I’ll leave it just the way it is.”

Poogie Scearce, owner of Poogie’s Buffet & Grill in Ringgold, doesn’t allow smoking inside.

There’s a table outside of the restaurant with a container for cigarette ashes.

Scearce, who opened her restaurant in the same building that used to house Burner’s, said most of her customers thank her for not changing the smoking policy.

“I’ve only had one couple leave when they found out we didn’t allow smoking,” Scearce said.

2008 NEWS Excerpts -- Virginia Clean Indoor Air