By Charlie Cain / Detroit News Lansing Bureau
PLYMOUTH -- A growing number of states are passing laws to ban smoking in bars and restaurants. But don't hold your breath waiting for Michigan to join them.
The sponsor of legislation to bar smoking in Michigan restaurants -- but leave bars and bowling alleys alone -- can't even get a hearing before a legislative committee.
"They plan on deep-sixing my bill again," said Sen. Raymond Basham, D-Taylor, who introduced his bill in February. "This is the third time I've introduced this. The chair of the committee where my bill was referred said I would never get a hearing."
Laura Lucas of Farmington thinks that's the way it should be. Lucas, a private investigator and longtime smoker, said she's glad the no-smoking legislation isn't going anywhere.
"It's ridiculous. I'm sick of people telling me what I can and can't do," said Lucas as she sat at Sean O'Callaghan's Public House in Plymouth. "We have a conservative government that's supposed to stay out of our lives."
Basham and others who want to clear the air blame the clout of the tobacco, liquor and restaurant industries for stalling their efforts. And the consequences are deadly, Basham said.
State health officials say as many as 2,500 Michiganians die each year as a result of exposure to second-hand smoke. That's in addition to the 14,700 others who die from their own smoking.
Marx Cooper, a retired mortgage banker from Oak Park who now heads the Michigan Coalition for SmokeFree Air, said it's tragic that Michigan is bucking a national trend and forcing the three-quarters of adults (73.9 percent) who don't smoke to put up with the minority who do.
Cooper said it's particularly ironic in light of the mushrooming number of restaurants that have voluntarily gone smoke-free: By his accounting, 172 restaurants in Michigan banned smoking in 1994; today, it's more than 3,600.
In some parts of the country local units of government can adopt their own ban on smoking in bars and restaurant. But in Michigan, the courts have held that locals cannot impose more stringent standards than the state.
Rob Gifford, executive director of the Michigan Restaurant Association, which fiercely opposes the no-smoking proposal, says it amounts to nannyism by government.
"We question the need for big government to get involved," said Gifford, whose group represents 15,000 restaurants. "It's unnecessary.
"Thousands of restaurants have have increased the size of their nonsmoking sections and countless others have improved ventilation systems. This would be an unnecessary intervention by government on the property rights of restaurant owners."
Beginning in 1989, Michigan law required nonsmoking sections in restaurants. An establishment with a capacity of 150 or more, for example, had to provide seats for at least 36 nonsmokers. The law was expanded in 1994 to require restaurants with a capacity of 50 or more to reserve at least half of their seats for nonsmokers. But critics say that's not enough.
"Smokers' rights end when their smoke goes up the nose of a nonsmoker. You can't train smoke to stop at the end of a table," Basham said.
Sen. Jason Allen chairs the Commerce and Labor Committee where Basham's bill languishes. Allen said the committee has been too busy to consider the legislation and gives no assurances it will get a hearing in the fall. He denied that's he bowing to pressure from the tobacco, restaurant and liquor interests.
Asked if smoke in restaurants bothers him, Allen, who smokes an occasional cigar, said: "Yeah, I usually sit in the nonsmoking section." | 
