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Smoking bans should be left to local governments

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Conflicting rulings from two circuit court judges on local smoking bans mean the state Supreme Court will be called on to sort out this issue.

But there's a simpler way to settle the matter, and the state Senate took an important step Thursday to do just that.

Senators voted to allow county and municipal governments to enact ordinances prohibiting or restricting smoking in businesses or establishments open to the general public. Only one more vote is required before the bill goes to the House of Representatives.

That undoes a 1996 amendment to the state's Clean Indoor Air Act that prohibits any laws, ordinances or rules dealing with tobacco from superseding state laws or regulations.

State law now only prohibits smoking in certain public areas, such as preschools, government buildings and arenas, except in designated areas. (Several bills moving through the legislature would eliminate the exemption.)

A separate House bill would extend the statewide smoking ban to restaurants, bars and lounge areas. It specifically exempts private homes and automobiles, home-based businesses, private functions in indoor areas, hotel rooms designated as smoking rooms, private clubs and specialty tobacco stores and cigar bars.

Smoking bans of various sorts have been passed across the state in recent months, including bans in Bluffton and Beaufort County and on Hilton Head Island. Local communities have made it clear they want to set the standard on this issue, and they should be

allowed to do so.

The 1996 provision always

has been a hurdle for local

governments. Thursday's

ruling from a judge in Greenville states that South Carolina law expressly prevents local governments from creating their own rules on smoking. But in December, a different circuit court judge dismissed a lawsuit over a similar ban on Sullivan's Island. It's

hard to see how two judges could look at the same language and come to such different conclusions, but that's where we stand for now.

The people fighting the Sullivan's Island ban vowed to take the case to the state Supreme Court. And Greenville's mayor told the Greenville News he planned to appeal Thursday's ruling.

But state lawmakers can and should solve this problem long before the issue is argued in front of the Supreme Court. They should strike the 1996 provision.

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