RALEIGH, N.C.  – The state Senate on Monday gave final approval a smoking ban in nearly all restaurants and bars, building momentum to restrict secondhand smoke in the country’s largest tobacco-growing state.

The Senate voted 30-18 in favor of the measure that next returns to the state House, which passed a broader version last month and where bills that made similar attacks on secondhand smoking have died twice since 2005.

The bill’s primary sponsor said he believes House members will support some kind of smoking ban and expects it will probably be a negotiated compromise with the Senate based on the competing proposals. Both chambers would then have to vote again on the final version.

“The good side of their bill is they have restrictions on bars and we did not. The good side of our bill is that we have some workplaces,” said Rep. Hugh Holliman, D-Davidson, a two-time lung cancer survivor and House majority leader. “So there’s some things that we need to talk about.”

The House version would ban smokers from places where children under age 18 visit or work. That would have allowed smoking in self-standing lounges but banned it from restaurants with bar sections.

Health groups including the American Heart Association and other health groups have argued that secondhand smoke is a serious, preventable health risk. Opponents including free-enterprise advocates Americans for Prosperity, which argued banning smoking from private businesses violated the right of owners to choose whether to allow smoking.

The arguments were repeated during Monday’s debate when Senate Minority Leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, tried to amend the measure to allow smoking in for-profit private clubs. Senate
Democrats argued Berger was introducing a loophole that could allow businesses to form membership-only clubs to cater to smokers.

“People will choose to frequent these establishments. People’s choice is what we ought to be about. This is a legal product that generates millions, billions, of dollars for North Carolina,” Berger said.

The Senate gave tentative approval to its smoking ban legislation late last week.

Earlier Monday, the Senate approved separate legislation that would expand a 2006 smoking ban inside the state’s more than 70 prisons to include the grounds.

The measure approved 40-8 and sent to the House would make it a misdemeanor for someone to provide tobacco products or cell phones to a prisoner or to someone who delivers the items to an inmate. Employees or prison visitors can keep cigarettes inside their locked car in prison parking lots and not break the law. Otherwise, smoking workers or employees could be disciplined or visitors could lose privileges.

RALEIGH, N.C.  – It’s looking more like the Legislature wants a broad smoking ban in tobacco-growing North Carolina.

The Senate scheduled a second and final vote Monday on a measure that would ban lighting up in all enclosed restaurants and bars.

Senators gave an initial OK to the bill last week. Another “yes” vote would return the bill to the House, which passed an earlier version extending the ban to work sites where children under age 18 visit. The House could agree with the Senate or seek a compromise.

The measure is backed by those who say secondhand smoke is a preventable health hazard for the public. Opponents argue a ban violates the right of business owners to choose whether to allow smoking, and of their patrons.

RALEIGH, N.C.  – A statewide smoking ban narrowed to satisfy lawmakers worried about protecting property rights and North Carolina’s tobacco heritage is headed to the Senate floor.

The Senate scheduled Thursday a vote on a measure that would ban smoking at all restaurants and bars. A broader ban that also would have prohibited lighting up at all work sites was pulled from the floor last week because there weren’t enough votes to pass it.

The less restrictive ban was approved Wednesday in the Senate Health Care Committee.

Interest groups on both sides of the issue – health advocates and tobacco industry boosters – aren’t happy with the compromise.

North Carolina remains the nation’s top tobacco-growing state. But other tobacco-producing states are snuffing out smoking, either statewide or in local communities.

RALEIGH, N.C.  – The Senate has again changed its mind on a broad smoking ban for North Carolina.

The Senate Health Care Committee voted Wednesday to prohibit smoking at all restaurants and bars. The new version of the bill leaves out expanding the ban to include all work sites.

Sen. Bill Purcell of Scotland County is the chief supporter of the bill. Purcell said the bill’s scope was narrowed so it could get enough votes for passage in the Senate. The broader bill was withdrawn from the floor last week.

The measure creates exceptions for cigar bars, country clubs and similar private clubs.

Lorrilard Tobacco Co. lobbyist Michael Shannon said restaurants and bars should be able to make their own choice on whether to permit smoking.

RALEIGH, N.C. – The North Carolina Senate has put off debate on a bill that would ban smoking at most work sites, restaurants and public places because some Democrats aren’t sold on the idea.

Democrats on Thursday pulled the bill from the Senate floor until the middle of next week. Majority Leader Tony Rand of Cumberland County said fellow Democrats discussed the bill and predicted a vote on passage would be very close right now.

The chamber had scheduled a floor vote just one day after a committee narrowly approved the measure.

The ban has been broadened to remove a large exemption for stand-alone bars or other places where someone must be 18 to work or patronize. The version that cleared the House floor three weeks ago had that exception.

RALEIGH, N.C.  – Senators have broadened a proposed smoking ban at North Carolina work sites, restaurants and other public places by removing restrictions added in the House.

The Senate Health Care Committee on Wednesday approved legislation by a voice vote aimed at protecting employees and patrons from the dangers of secondhand smoke. The bill now goes to the full Senate.

The Senate version of the bill takes out exceptions from the House bill that would have permitted smoking in public places where children under age 18 don’t work or visit.

It does provide an exception for actors who are asked to smoke as part of a scene in a movie or television production. The film industry sought the change.

RALEIGH, N.C. — Supporters of a ban on smoking in indoor workplaces in North Carolina are trying to restore a provision that would include adult-only businesses under the ban.

The smoking ban was approved by the N.C. House earlier this month – but only after the bill was amended to exempt bars and other places that are not open to people younger than 18.

The bill is now before the N.C. Senate.

The Senate Health Committee will take up a substitute bill that will eliminate the exemption and restore the ban to its more restrictive form, according to the chairman of the health committee, Sen. William Purcell.

The health committee had planned to consider the bill yesterday, but the topic was postponed at the last minute because of a concern from the Wilmington film industry that the bill would not allow actors to smoke while being filmed for a movie.

“I don’t really like promoting smoking in movies, but on the other hand, the movie industry is very important to the state,” said Purcell, D-Scotland.

Legislators will rewrite the bill to deal with the issue of smoking on screen, and then the health committee will hold a hearing on the bill next week, Purcell said.

The holdup demonstrates how far-reaching the proposed smoking ban is – and how it has rattled many interest groups and employers. The bill, which is sponsored by Rep. Hugh Holliman, D-Davidson, would outlaw smoking in nearly all buildings where people are employed or the public is invited.

The exemption for adult-only businesses is particularly controversial because restaurant owners worry that it would create an uneven playing field. If the exemption stands, family restaurants that also have bars would be forced to ban smoking throughout their buildings, while adult-only bars could continue to allow smoking.

Democratic leaders in both the House and the Senate prefer a smoking ban without the adult-only exemption.

But the exemption makes the bill more palatable for some moderate Democrats, especially ones from tobacco-producing districts.

Most Republicans oppose the bill.

If the Senate approves the more-restrictive version of the bill, without the adult-only exemption, it will return to the House. Holliman said yesterday that he believes that if that happened, the more-restrictive version could get enough votes to pass in the House.

Supporters argue that all businesses should be subject to the ban in order to protect all employees from the health hazards of second-hand smoke.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) – Camera! Action! But no lights?

Debate on a bill to ban smoking at many work places in North Carolina was delayed in the Senate Health Care Committee on Wednesday because the motion picture industry worries the bill would prevent actors from smoking on screen.

The bill, which cleared the House three weeks ago, could bar smoking at many work sites, including film lots, the industry says.

Sen. Bill Purcell, D-Scotland, the committee’s co-chairman, said he wanted to give the movie industry in Wilmington sufficient time to propose an amendment. The bill will be considered next week, he said.

The state is among the nation’s leaders in generating film revenues.

“This is a big issue with the movie makers in North Carolina,” said Purcell, adding that he had no problem. “The film industry is a very important industry to North Carolina.”

A spokesman for the Motion Picture Association of America, which sought the change, didn’t immediately return a phone call seeking comment.

The bill’s chief sponsor, Rep. Hugh Holliman, D-Davidson, said Wednesday he wasn’t taking a stand on a moviemaking exemption yet.

“We’ll take a look at it. We’ll see what it does,” said Holliman, who tried unsuccessfully to pass similar smoking bans in 2005 and 2007.

Purcell said a new version of the bill expected before the committee would restore tougher restrictions on smoking that were deleted when the bill passed the House. A House provision to bar smoking in businesses or restaurants that employ or serve anyone under age 18 likely would be broadened, he said.

Purcell also said the definition of private clubs, whose patrons would be permitted to keep smoking, would be narrowed in an attempt to satisfy the North Carolina Restaurant and Lodging Association, which doesn’t support the House version of the measure.

North Carolina is still the nation’s top tobacco-growing state, but that heritage still hasn’t prevent legislators in recent years from raising tobacco taxes from 5 cents per pack to 35 cents and banning smoking inside state buildings and their own Legislative Building.

North Carolina has been the site for filming of such movies as George Clooney’s “Leatherheads” and Will Ferrell’s “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.” The television series “Dawson’s Creek” was filmed in Wilmington, followed by “One Tree Hill.

RALEIGH, N.C. – North Carolina lawmakers are ready to consider a bill which bans smoking in many businesses as a way to prevent patrons and workers from breathing secondhand smoke.

The Senate’s health care committee prepared to debate Wednesday a measure that passed the House three weeks ago but lost some of its toughest restrictions in the process.

The House measure had forbidden smoking from all workplaces, including bars and restaurants, but amendments narrowed the prohibition to businesses that employ or serve anyone under 18. Most other businesses that post signs to permit smoking are exempt.

Still, House passage was an achievement after similar efforts in the past four years have failed. Senate leaders have said they expect the limited smoking ban to pass, although its ultimate form is unclear.