Political Winds Blowing Smoke-Free

Thompson earlier worked for U.S. Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest, a Republican from Maryland's Eastern Shore. He then pursued a longtime dream and worked as an assistant chef in a French restaurant. He and his wife didn't like the hours, so he returned to politics, joining the Restaurant Association of Maryland five years ago.

In fighting this battle, he also faces challenges from his own side. He doesn't get much help from big chains, such as Outback Steakhouse and the Olive Garden, that survive more on dinner volume than bar receipts, independent restaurant owners say. Even some Maryland restaurant and bar owners who are members of his organization tell lawmakers they'd be willing to live with a statewide ban if the District follows through with its own legislation, eliminating that competition.

And when Thompson tries to generate momentum among smokers, such as recently faxing material to bars in Prince George's, those folks tend not to show up at public hearings, where ardent smoking foes regularly do, he said.

Local officials certainly are following trends. At least seven states, including California, New York and Delaware, and 180 localities, insist on smoke-free bars and restaurants. Even Ireland now forbids smoking in pubs.

In Maryland, smoke-free proponents say that Thompson is too quick to cite politics and criticize research and that local officials simply are trying to promote safe environments for all workers.

Debates on smoking in Maryland bars stretch back to at least the early 1990s. In 1993, Howard and Anne Arundel counties and the city of Baltimore proposed cutting back. Even the restaurant association seemed to agree about the dangers.

"We see more and more scientific reports linking exposure of tobacco smoke with illnesses," Paula Kreuzburg, the association's then-president, wrote in a memo to the group's board of directors, according to a copy of the memo posted under the "Secret Documents" section of the Smoke Free Maryland Coalition's Web site.

In 1995, Maryland enacted rules barring smoking in indoor workplaces. But state politicians carved out exemptions for restaurants and bars. The industry's argument has long been that restaurants, and particularly bars, aren't like airplanes or office buildings -- that many of them need smokers to thrive. In 1996, Howard officials enacted a law calling for establishments to seal off smoking sections.

Things remained relatively quiet for the next eight years. Then, in 2003, Montgomery's ban went into effect.

As for Talbot County, where smoking in nightspots was snuffed out last year, it is increasingly filling with wealthy retirees -- who, unlike longtime residents, weren't as apt to get a beer at a smoky bar, Thompson said.

He continues to distribute research by James E. Enstrom at the School of Public Health at the University of California at Los Angeles. Enstrom and others studied 35,561 nonsmokers with smoking spouses, concluding that the data didn't support a causal relationship between secondhand smoke and tobacco-related mortality.

Reached in Los Angeles, Enstrom said that he is not necessarily opposed to smoking bans -- in part because he thinks actually smoking is more dangerous than many people believe -- but that his research into secondhand smoke tends to be dismissed out of hand in the current environment.