Communications Division
State Capitol
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73105

For Immediate Release: May 28, 2003

Audio Clip

Senator Cal Hobson

Senator Ben Robinson

Senate OKs Smoke-free Workplace Bill

(OKLAHOMA CITY) State Senators Wednesday approved legislation that will create smoke-free workplaces for hundreds of thousands of Oklahomans and a healthier atmosphere for the state’s non-smokers and children.

Senate Joint Resolution 21 calls for a ban on smoking in most work places and other public places, including restaurants. Senators voted 36 to 9 for the bill, which now goes to the House of Representatives for consideration.

Senate President Pro Tempore Cal Hobson called the 36-9 vote a major victory for the health of Oklahomans.

“In the decade of the 1990s, Oklahoma was the only state in the nation in which the health of its citizens actually declined. The life expectancy in our state is less than in Guatemala. Those unpleasant facts can be linked to the large portion of our population that smokes and to the negative effects of second hand smoke on the rest of us,” said Hobson, D-Lexington.

“We have taken an historic step today to improve the health of our state.”

The legislation will give restaurants 30 months from September 1, 2003, to either go smoke free or construct an enclosed and separately ventilated smoking section.

Hobson said he is hopeful most restaurants will follow the growing trend and go smoke free before that time.

Senator Ben Robinson, a long-time health advocate, presented the bill on the Senate floor.

He said the delay in implementation of the smoking ban in restaurants will give those restaurants that choose to construct an enclosed smoking section time to do so.

“The net result is that by March 1, 2006, restaurants will either be smoke free or smoking will be confined to a room where it can’t endanger the health of non-smoking families and children,” said Robinson, D-Muskogee.

The measure exempts stand-alone bars, stand-alone taverns and cigar bars; any room where licensed charitable bingo games are being operated; and private offices occupied exclusively by one or more smokers from the restrictions. Facilities owned by veterans organizations will also be exempt except at times when those facilities are open to the public.

In debating in favor of the measure on the Senate floor Wednesday afternoon, Robinson, 69, said he once had a lot of friends who were life-long smokers. That number has dwindled over the years as many of those friends have died and others have experienced serious health problems and quit smoking

“We can’t do anything for them at this point. We’re doing this for our young people so that they won’t ever start smoking and face those same consequences,” Robinson said.

Hobson said the issue is personal for him and should be for other parents and grandparents.

“This is a victory for our children. It’s a victory for my 3-year-old grandson, who will be 6 in 2006. When that time comes I can now be certain that he can go to a restaurant in our state and never have to whiff a puff of smoke. That’s very important to me,” Hobson said.


For more information, contact:
Senate Communications Division - (405) 521-5605