Youngster advocates store smoking ban

Erin Neff

Friday, March 2, 2001 | 11:12 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Stephanie Glantz so eloquently belied her nine years Thursday when she told an Assembly panel she has trouble in grocery stores because the smoke from the slot machine area sets off her asthma.

"I would like to go into grocery stores without having to breathe the stuff that I fear," Glantz said in support of a bill to ban smoking in grocery stores.

With long blond hair pulled back neatly in purple bands, the young Washoe County girl said exposure to smoke at a grocery store and later at the airport the same day caused her to pass out and required hospitalization to ventilate her lungs.

When she finished speaking, even lobbyists representing tobacco companies lauded her testimony.

Assembly Bill 168, sponsored by Sharron Angle, R-Reno, is a second attempt to ban smoking in grocery stores. The bill, which would take effect in October, would ban all smoking in grocery stores, including gaming areas.

During the 1999 session, Angle's bill resulted in a compromise that gives large grocery stores until 2010 to create separate areas for gaming.

"This is a second chance to do the right thing," Angle said in introducing her bill before the Assembly Judiciary Committee. "We have compromised this issue several times.

Prior to her bill, the committee listened to testimony on a measure that would require casinos to offer non-smoking gaming areas. Casino lobbyists argued adults have a choice to gamble and can avoid smoke if they don't go to casinos.

"We don't have the option to choose not to go to the grocery store," Angle said.

Harvey Whittemore, lobbying on behalf of BP Amoco and RJ Reynolds, said he thought the balance achieved in the 1999 legislation -- which set the timeline for stores to separate smoking areas -- was important to maintain.

Whittemore also said he thought it was unfair to change that 2010 timeline just two years after it was set.

"This is a question of balance," added Sam McMullen, a lobbyist representing the Retail Association of Nevada.

But Jeanne Palmer, health education manager for the Clark County Health District, testifying from Las Vegas, disagreed.

"We've talked about balance, but the issue is not balance, it's public health," Palmer said. "I feel that we need to do something now."

After listening to testimony from small grocery and convenience store representatives during the 1999 bill, Angle said she would be willing to accept an amendment exempting smaller stores from her bill.