Thursday, July 20 2006
COLORADO - Turns out the legislature passed a much broader smoking ban than even lawmakers envisioned. Thanks to a howling error in the law, for the near future at least the ban is likely to be enforced in part by litigation, not by regulators.
Patching that hole is likely to be a priority when the legislature next convenes in January. But what a nightmare. Lawmakers have debated bans on smoking during the past two regular sessions and have had plenty of time to vet language before it wound up in a statute. Such sloppiness is inexcusable.
Articles published recently by News reporters Lynn Bartels and Joanne Kelley revealed a glitch in the ban passed this spring that, by any fair reading of the law, makes it much more sweeping than advertised.
Lawmakers gave employees who work in facilities exempt from the ban - casinos, cigar bars, outdoor businesses, smoking lounges at airports and companies that employee three or fewer people - a "right to work in an area free of environmental tobacco smoke."
Not that cigar-bar employees should expect to work in pristine air. An attorney familiar with the law told us he's confident that no tobacconist would be expected to provide a smoke-free work place for employees.
That said, even the lawmaker who crafted the casino exemption, Rep. Jim Sullivan, R-Larkspur, told Bartels he had no idea that the new right was included in the law.
So much for the notion that crucial legislation - and this was one of the most hotly debated issues in the session - faces thorough scrutiny. The upshot is that casinos may have to soon ban smoking if they hope to satisfy the dictates of the law. The exemption may be meaningless.
In theory, the exemption from the smoking ban applies to "the retail floor plan" of casinos, including gaming areas, restaurants, bars and lounges, performance venues, gift shops, restrooms - pretty much everything inside the structures. But since the law requires smoke- free work sites for employees who request them, it may be impossible to allow smoking anywhere inside casinos and afford workers their rights.
True, a casino could set up smoke-free gaming areas or prohibit cigarettes in their restaurants and bars. But most employees have no "work station" as such; they move through the entire property.
Blackjack dealers rotate tables; cocktail servers move between bars and slot areas; technicians and maintenance crews go everywhere.
If employees demand the right to work in a smoke-free environment, casinos may have to ban smoking.
Even though that would be our preference, it's not what the legislature intended. And it's a shame that, unless lawmakers return to the issue next year, enforcement of that ill-crafted statute may become the duty of judges rather than gaming authorities and public-health officials.
Source: RockyMountainNews.com
Published: July 21, 2006
