By Martha M. Ireland

Reaching Shelton at dinnertime, we looked for a restaurant with a pie case--we were, after all, on one of our famous pie tours.

Entering a likely looking cafe, we were promptly seated near the only other customers, a young couple with a delightful little boy. The friendly waitress brought menus and water before we realized there was an ashtray on every table.

About the time our entrees arrived, the boy's parents both lit up. The restaurant owner joined them, smoking and chitchatting amiably.

We didn't stay for pie.

We will be spared a repeat of that experience if Senate Substitute Bill 5993 becomes law.

SSB 5993 would remove "the discretion of owners or managers of restaurants, card rooms, and bowling alleys to choose to allow smoking areas other than in a lounge, bar, or other area where persons under eighteen years of age are not permitted to enter or remain."

SSB 5993 has passed the Washington State Senate and is now before the House Commerce and Labor Committee.

Thinking of that little boy in Shelton, it is easy to support legislation that would give his lungs a break. The poor child is forced to breathe his parents' second-hand smoke at home, why not protect him in public?

Most restaurants already choose to establish non-smoking sections. More and more are voluntarily opting to be smoke-free.

Making a go of a restaurant business is one of the toughest of business challenges. Some restaurateurs claim banning smoking would cost them customers, which could lead to business failures.

Pro-smoking restaurateurs may have that backwards. To our observation, non-smoking eateries generally have more patrons than that all-smoking Shelton cafe.

On the other hand, is a comprehensive smoking ban appropriate in a free nation? If we truly believe in individual responsibility and freedom of choice, why would we infringe on these business owners' freedoms?

When we talk about Washington State's business unfriendly regulatory climate, we're not just talking about Boeing. Small businesses, including restaurants, also suffer from burdensome governmental intrusions.

SSB 5993 excessively and unnecessarily infringes on freedom of choice.

I don't like smoking, but I'm pro-choice for restaurants. Let restaurant owners choose their smoking policies and let patrons choose whether or not to eat in a cloud of smoke.

The legislature should preserve restaurateurs' freedom of choice, but require them to tell the public--clearly and up front--what policy they choose. If "SMOKING" had been lettered on the door of that Shelton restaurant, we would have looked elsewhere for a pie case.

Appropriate restaurant labels would be "Smoking," "Smoke-free," "Separate Smoking Room," and "Separate non-smoking Room." A few tables without ashtrays in an otherwise smoke-filled room should not count as a non-smoking section.

Since tobacco is legally off-limits for persons under 18 years of age, it may be defensible to make smoking areas off-limits to under-age patrons.

Smoking is unhealthy--so is consuming alcoholic beverages or eating too much junk food. The best society can do--and the most government should do--is assure that citizens have the information to make wise choices.

Preserve our freedom to choose, and I'll choose smoke-free.

Column from April 6, 2001 -- Peninsula Daily News

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