Saipan Chamber backs smoking ban bill but…

The Saipan Chamber of Commerce is backing CNMI House legislation designed to ban smoking in local restaurants, but is urging lawmakers to adopt a host of amendments providing relief for hotels and restaurants attached to bars.

The legislation, H.B. 16-47, introduced by Rep. Justo Quitugua, was the focus of several recent CNMI House Health Education and Welfare Committee hearings on Saipan, Tinian and Rota. House lawmakers will debate the bill in a committee meeting Tuesday.

Several Saipan restaurants such as Shirley’s, Tony Roma’s and Capricciosa have already enacted smoking bans in anticipation of the bill. However, as seen in a recent customer survey at Shirley’s, the proposed ban has seen some opposition from patrons who prefer having freedom to light up where they choose.

In a letter to committee chair Ralph DLG Torres June 16, the Chamber “offers its qualified support” for the bill but also presents the committee with a series of proposed amendments.

Chief among the Chamber’s requested changes is the inclusion of language that would distinguish a normal bar from an “attached bar” which also operates as a restaurant during lunch and dinnertime hours. The Chamber asks the committee to “consider proposing an amendment that would subject such establishments” to a general ban on smoking but “allow those businesses the option of an exemption” from the ban at either a predetermined time when their kitchens close after 10pm.

Additionally, the Chamber takes issue with a prohibition in the bill on smoking within 25 feet of an establishment where a ban is in place. “This prohibition would effectively ban smoking on most public streets in Garapan,” the letter notes, adding that the amount of secondhand smoke reaching diners in smoke-free establishments from outside “would be de minimis” and asking the committee to remove the language.

On smoking in hotels, the Chamber’s letter urges the committee to remove language placing a 20-percent limit on the number of rooms in a hotel where the owners permit smoking.

“We believe market forces should dictate the number of hotel rooms designated as nonsmoking,” the letter says.

Torres in an interview Friday said this weekend he and his staff will consider all the comments the committee has received.

“Overall, I’ve had so much positive support from the committee for the bill’s passage,” he said.