Seeks to break legislative logjam on bills that would allow municipalities to ban smoking in public places.
By: Jennifer Potash
While the smoke may have dissipated over the Princeton Regional Health Commission’s failed 2000 ordinance to ban smoking in public places, the commission is now signaling Gov. James E. McGreevey to take up the issue.
The commission, which represents Princeton Borough and Princeton Township, has written to the governor asking him to support bills languishing in the Legislature that would permit municipalities and regional health commissions to ban smoking in public places.
"We do not think public health should continue to be held hostage by special interests and hope you will assist with your moral leadership," wrote Dr. Norman J. Sissman, chairman of the Health Commission, in a Jan. 13 letter.
Emboldened by New York City’s recently announced smoking ban in restaurants and bars, the Health Commission would like to see similar protections for New Jerseyans.
In 2000, following nearly a year of study and public comment, the commission adopted an ordinance banning smoking in most public places including restaurants, bars, private clubs and hotel rooms without separate ventilation systems.
The intent of the ordinance was to protect patrons and employees from environmental tobacco smoke, commonly known as secondhand smoke.
But the ordinance never took effect.
A week after the commission’s vote, the National Smokers Alliance and three Princeton Borough bars and restaurants filed a lawsuit challenging the measure.
Mercer County Superior Court Judge Linda Feinberg upheld the challenge, ruling that the Health Commission did not have the authority to enact the ordinance because state law pre-empts municipalities from adopting limitations on smoking that are more restrictive than state statutes.
Local legislators responded with bills in the state Senate and Assembly that give municipalities and regional health commissions the flexibility to adopt restrictions on smoking in public. The existing legislation, adopted in the 1980s, predated "myriad" studies on the health effect of secondhand smoke on nonsmokers, according to the Health Commission.
A bill sponsored by Sen. Shirley Turner (D-Lawrence) in the Senate was forwarded by the Health Committee to the Budget and Appropriations Committee in May.
A companion bill in the Assembly, co-sponsored by Assembly members Reed Gusciora (D-Princeton Borough) and Bonnie Watson-Coleman (D-Ewing), was introduced a year ago and referred to the Health Committee.