San Francisco adopts strict anti-smoking law

Press, 5 July 1983, Page 6

San Francisco adopts strict anti-smoking law

By

JOHN HUTCHISON

San Francisco

San Francisco has just adopted a strict anti-smok-

ing law, striking sparks from the tobacco industry. The new ordinance, passed 10 to one by the Board of Supervisors (equivalent to councillors) and signed with enthusiasm by the Mayor, requires employers to make “reasonable accommodations” in handling the preferences of smokers and non-smokers in their nlaees nf work

If the desires of nonsmokers cannot be otherwise satisfied, the employer must ban smoking altogether. Bars, restaurants, sports buildings, Federal offices or work places occupied only by smokers are exempt.

The Department of Public Health will enforce the law; the city attorney is empowered to file civil suits for damages as high as SUSSOO a day for non-com-

pliance by an employer. Although there has been little general outcry against the measure, and substantial public support for it, it was opposed by the Tobacco Institute, a powerful lobby, as “an authoritarian form of segregation and an outright discrimination against those who smoke.” The trades union council and the chamber of commerce of San Francisco also opposed the ordinance. The Lung Association and Cancer Society supported it. Mayor ,Diane Feinstein, when she signed the measure, said it would end “a kind of tyranny of the smoker.” While non-smokers can leave a bar or other public place if smoke is offensive, they can not leave their work, she said. Proponents of the new measure, which takes effect in 90 days, believe that the requirement that employees be satisfied with employer compliance will make the law virtually self-enforcing.