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VA Legislators Attempt to Ban Restaurant Smoking
RICHMOND—The push to ban smoking in restaurants and other indoor areas has continued into this year’s General Assembly session, reported The Roanoke Times.
The bills seem to have grown from a push started in 2006, when Bell, a Republican from Roanoke County, was able to shepherd a bill to ban smoking in indoor areas through the Senate.
Last year, after the U.S. Surgeon General issued a report strongly condemning secondhand smoke, Bell was joined by four other legislators who filed similar bills in both the Senate and House of Delegates. An alternative approach proposed by Del. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, passed the General Assembly but was radically altered by Gov. Tim Kaine and subsequently defeated during the April veto session.
