The Massachusetts Legislature
may consider banning smoking at workplaces throughout the state,
including bars and restaurants, the Boston Globe reported.
Two days after Boston, the state capital, enacted a citywide
smoking ban, the Legislature’s House and Senate Joint Committee on
Health Care heard testimony about extending the ban statewide, the
paper said. State Senator Richard Moore told the Globe the
committee could have a bill to the Legislature in two weeks.
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Lobbyists that fought against smoking bans in the past,
including the Massachusetts Restaurant Association, didn’t testify
at the committee’s hearing. The group didn’t oppose Boston’s ban,
the Globe reported, and the restaurant alliance’s director of
government affairs Andrea List said the group isn’t taking a
position on a statewide ban.
State Representative Brian Wallace, a South Boston Democrat
who had opposed a smoking ban, said he switched his stance because
of concerns from Boston bar owners about losing customers to
nearby communities that allow smoking, the Globe said.
Bloomberg News
