New smoking laws under consideration

TULSA - Public smoking laws could change if a state bill is passed. House Bill 2135 would give local control over tobacco bans.
Currently cities in Oklahoma do not have the power to pass tougher ordinances.

According to Tulsa county health officials, 25% of Oklahomans smoke, but where they light up is limited.
Smoking is already banned in most indoor public places, restaurants are required to have separate ventilated areas, and, no one under the age of 18 can purchase tobacco products. Currently these are the tobacco laws for the state.

If House Bill 2135 is passed, each city will be able to make it's own tobacco laws and not everyone is happy about that.

Mike Thornbrugh with QuikTrip told 2NEWS localizing tobacco ordinances would be a disaster for the convenience store business and his employees.

"If you have an employee who works in Tulsa one day, Bixby the next, than maybe Owasso they know the rules because it's consistant." explained Thornbrugh.

With House Bill 2135, there would be no consistancy.

"All the cities in Oklahoma would have different rules, different regulations, different fees on the same products, that's utter chaos." said Thornbrugh.

Others see the bill has a step in the right direction for public health.

"Particularly when we see health rankings we (the state of Oklahoma) are consistently ranked in the bottom 5 states and a lot of that is due to tobacco usage." said Melanie Christian with the Tulsa Health Department.

Tuesday at the state capitol, the State Chamber of Commerce announced it is in support of the bill.
The Tulsa Chamber is not yet taking a stance.

"As we move to implement changes necessary to improve the health outcomes of Oklahomans, we strongly believe Oklahoma's communities should have the same right to reduce tobacco use as most other communities in America," said State Health Commissioner Dr. Terry Cline.
Cline and Rep. Kris Steele joined with Matt Robison, Vice President of Small Business and Workforce Development from The State Chamber of Oklahoma, and Wes Stucky, President and CEO of the Ardmore Chamber of Commerce, to affirm that passage of HB 2135 would be pro-business.

Rep. Steele authored the bill and said it's simply restoring local rights.

"We're allowing the form of government closest to the community to make those kind of decisions." said Speaker Steele.

Restaurant owners who added ventilation systems to comply to current state law would be reimbursed for the expenses, according to Speaker Steele if local laws changed.

The original bill allowed cities to change age requirements on tobacco purchases, Speaker Steele said that portion of the bill has been removed.

House Bill 2135 has passed committee and will head to the full House of Representatives in the next few weeks.