You can still smoke 'em in Bellaire

The city of Bellaire has decided to not follow Houston's lead in expanding its no-smoking ordinance for restaurants.

Mayor Cindy Siegel, who voted in favor of the ordinance along with council member Pat McLaughlan, read several statistics about the harmful impacts of second-hand smoke and said that the ordinance would help protect the health and safety of residents.

"A person's decision to smoke impacts my heath and my family's health," Siegel said. "It is the same concept as regulating refrigerator temperatures in restaurants so that food is at a safe temperature."

Houston passed a similar no smoking ordinance in 2005 and Siegel said the National Restaurant Association requested the council consider the measure to unify the stance on smoking in bars and restaurants in the Houston area.

Council's vote against the smoking ban was 5-2.

I presume the article refers to the ordinance of March 2005, which affected restaurants only, and not the expanded version of last October, which brought bars into the picture. While I don't think Bellaire's restaurant scene is going to be much of a threat to Houston, it's still this sort of thing that has led to a push to standardize smoking regulations at a statewide level. We'll see if this gets cited as evidence in favor of such a need. Thanks to Houstonist for the link.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on January 18, 2007 to Local politics