Concord- There is a proposed smoking ban heading to the New Hampshire Senate after being approved by the House. The ban would prohibit smoking in all restaurants and bars throughout the state.
At a Senate committee meeting last week, not enough votes were cast to support the ban. The vote came out 3-3, meaning the committee will send the proposal onto the full Senate with a recommendation to reject the ban. Senators are scheduled to hear speeches and lobbying next week when the vote comes up for debate.
Supporters of the ban say that smoking and the negative affects of secondhand smoke are detrimental to restaurant workers and should be banned to benefit public health. Opponents feel that the decision to allow smoking or not should be left up to the establishment owners. Others feel that banning all smoking would be an intrusion by the state government.
New Hampshire’s Restaurant Trade Association is not fighting the ban and The NH Lodging and Restaurant Association membership is evenly divided between support and opposition.
As of January 2006, 11 US states have accepted full statewide smoking bans.
The main concern over smoking bans has been that not allowing smoking would cripple business. With the implementation of smoking bans in other states, it has been shown that a full smoking ban would not hurt business nearly as much as originally thought.
Research has show that the secondhand smoke found in bars and restaurants has a variety of health risks. It also indicates that removing the smoke from these establishments would improve the air quality by a significant amount.
The “first” smoking ban was started in 1590 by Pope Urban VII. Any offenders of the ban would be excommunicated and suffer harsh penalties.