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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
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State
Rep. Dan Frankel |
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Frankel bill to allow stronger local smoking laws advances out of committee
HARRISBURG, March 15 – The House Health and Human Services Committee today approved a bill introduced by state Rep. Dan Frankel, D-Allegheny, that would allow local governments in Pennsylvania to enact smoking bans stronger than a 2008 state law.
The 2008 law allows only Philadelphia to have a clean-indoor-air ordinance stronger than state law. Frankel's bill (H.B. 58) would allow all local governments in the state to enact and enforce their own smoking ordinances.
"Current law bars local elected officials who represent seven out of eight Pennsylvanians from having the same authority to protect workers and citizens that Philadelphia has. I reluctantly supported the compromise law in 2008 because it was a step forward in protecting citizens' health in public places. However, it was considerably weaker than the version the House passed by more than a two-to-one margin, which did not ban stronger local protections," Frankel said.
"Since it may be some time before the Commonwealth is willing to pass clean indoor air protections as strong as our citizens deserve, it is time to give communities like Allegheny County and Scranton the authority to protect workers and residents against secondhand smoke and rein in the health-care costs that result from this preventable hazard."
The bill now goes to the full House of Representatives.
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