Property Rights: SC State Update Page 3

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Bryant smoking bill snuffed out

April 10, 2013
By Kirk Brown

COLUMBIA — State Sen. Kevin Bryant’s effort to give employers the right to refuse to hire and even to fire smokers was snuffed out Wednesday.

A Senate subcommittee that is led by Bryant voted to delay taking any action on his bill, effectively killing it.

The panel’s decision came after representatives from the South Carolina Hospital Association and AnMed Health spoke in favor of Bryant’s bill while a tobacco industry lobbyist argued against it.

Bryant, a Republican from Anderson, was seeking to repeal a 1990 South Carolina law that prohibits employers from taking any personnel action based on an employee’s use of tobacco outside the workplace. He said Wednesday that his motivation was to protect the “individual liberty” of business owners.

“It is about the role of government,” Bryant said.

But other members of the subcommittee were not swayed by his argument.

“People shouldn’t be punished because they smoke,” said Sen. Kent Williams, a Democrat from Marion. “To say that I am not going to hire you because you are a smoker really concerns me.”

Democratic Sen. Glenn Reese of Lake Bowen accused Bryant of pursuing “Gestapo tactics” against smokers.

“I don’t think you can fire them for smoking on the back porch at home,” Reese said.

Thornton Kirby, president of the South Carolina Hospital Association, told the subcommittee that “there is no constitutional right to smoke.”

Kirby said his association supported Bryant’s bill as a means of lowering health-care costs in the state.

“Smoking is the No. 1 cause of death, disease and disability in this country,” said Kirby, who added that only 11 states have a higher proportion of smokers than South Carolina. “We smoke a lot and our health care costs a lot. These two things are related.”

Dwight Drake, who represented Altria, predicted that Bryant’s bill would lead to the firings of a “bunch of people.” Altria is the parent company of Phillip Morris USA and two other tobacco companies.

Bryant disagreed with Drake’s prediction. He said he personally had no intention of firing employees at his pharmacy in Anderson who smoke when not at work.

“If you do your job well, your employer is going to do everything they can to hold on to you,” Bryant said.

Michael Cunningham, vice president for advancement at AnMed Health, said Anderson County’s largest employer has no interest in firing current employees who use tobacco.

AnMed puts a “great deal of investment in training and retaining our employees,” Cunningham said.

Cunningham said AnMed supported Bryant’s bill because it would provide another tool for pre-screening prospective employees.

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Warning: Smoking May Cost You A Job

Apr 07, 2013
By Emily Pace, Reporter

SOUTH CAROLINA –

Tobacco-users have steadily been pushed away from bars, restaurants, parks and even college campuses.

Now, some companies want to get rid of smokers in the workplace. But it’s against the law in South Carolina, as well as in 28 other states that ban discrimination against tobacco-users.

“It is not government’s role to tell a business owner how they operate their business and how they spend their money,” said Sen. Kevin Bryant, R-Anderson.

That protection for smoker could soon be repealed if Bryant’s measure is passed.

The lawmaker believes companies should be able to hire or fire workers that use tobacco products off-the-clock.

Smoking is the only factor employers can’t use when determining personnel action, according to Bryant.

“If somebody is smoking on their own time or during lunch breaks, I really don’t see how that is relevant to the work that their doing,” says Jamie Gilbert who’s opposes the bill.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that smokers cost employers nearly $200 billion each year in medical costs and lost productivity.

“I feel like if I own the business, I have that right to hire whoever I want to,” adds Spartanburg resident Scotty Todd.

Critics of the bill also say it intrudes into the private lifestyle choices of employees.

“I am not trying to violate anybody’s privacy,” says Bryant. “I am trying to remove a barrier that government has on a business owner.”

The bill is scheduled to go before the Senate Labor, Commerce and Industry subcommittee this week.

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Link to bill in SC Legislature
http://www.scstatehouse.gov/sess120_2013-2014/bills/180.htm

SC lawmakers stop bill barring smoking around kids
Apr 5, 2011
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A South Carolina proposal to fine drivers or passengers who puff away with a child under 6 in the car is going nowhere.
A House subcommittee voted 5-0 on Tuesday to adjourn debate on the bill. It has little chance of getting another hearing.
The bill was recommended by a bi-partisan Committee on Children. Its co-chairwoman is Republican Rep. Joan Brady, and she says the idea is to protect children from the dangers of secondhand smoke. She says it would help parents realize how their habits affect their children’s health.
But panel members said the proposal reached too far into people’s private lives and is difficult to enforce. Republican Rep. Anne Thayer said parents who smoke in their cars also smoke at home, and the bill won’t help children there.

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Smoking in car with kids at issue
March 31, 2011
BY SEANNA ADCOX, Associated Press
COLUMBIA — Drivers or passengers who puff away with a child under 6 in the car could be fined in South Carolina under a legislative proposal.
Proponents say it’s about protecting children from the dangers of secondhand smoke, including increased asthma attacks, ear and respiratory infections, as well as cancer.
The bill says that if children are young enough to need to be in a safety seat, the air they breathe inside a vehicle should be cloud-free.
“The child is a victim,” Rep. Joan Brady, R-Columbia, said Wednesday. “They really are held captive in a car.”
The idea has died twice before in the libertarian-leaning South Carolina Legislature. But it got a boost last month when the new bi-partisan Committee on Children — made up of legislators, agency heads and residents — recommended its passage.
Brady, the committee’s co-chairwoman, said she’s still not overly optimistic about its chances, but added the debate is an opportunity to discuss the health issues and educate the public.
The bill was set for discussion in a House subcommittee on Wednesday, but the meeting was canceled as debate continued on the House floor.
More than 90,000 children suffer from asthma in South Carolina, and asthma-related illnesses were the leading cause of children’s hospitalizations in 2008, according to the state’s health agency.
The children of parents who smoke half a pack a day nearly double their risk of hospitalization for a respiratory illness, according to the American Academy of Otolaryngology — Head and Neck Surgery.
Sen. Darrell Jackson, a member of the committee, initially proposed the idea in 2007 after what he called a horrifying experience. Pulling up beside a car at a Wal-Mart parking lot, he saw a woman puffing away on a cigarette with a child strapped in the back seat.
He has said his main purpose is to make smokers think twice about how their habit affects children’s health.
The latest version offers a smaller penalty than previous ones: a $25 civil fine, which local governments can’t tack fees onto, and won’t be reported to insurance companies.
Four states and Puerto Rico already limit smoking in cars. Laws took effect in Arkansas and Louisiana in 2006, in Puerto Rico in 2007, and in California and Maine in 2008. They differ widely on the punishment and when children are old enough for drivers to light up, from 6 years old in Arkansas to 18 in California, according to the Washington-based Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and American Lung Association.

By Gina Vasselli – gvasselli@thesunnews.com
Oct. 13, 2010

Smoke-free ordinances could be coming soon to a council meeting near you.

Horry County community groups have received $2.3 million from a federal grant to try to make the county smoke-free, and a large part of the success of that effort will depend on how convincing a team of smoke-free champions is to area city and county officials.

Horry County was one of 44 communities across the United States to be awarded money in March to help tackle obesity and tobacco use, two of the leading preventable causes of premature death and disability.

Some $373 million was given to those communities through the Department of Health and Human Services’ Communities Putting Prevention to Work program, overseen by the Centers for Disease Control. The program ends in March 2012.

Smoke Free Horry, the main organization, along with the BREATHE coalition and other groups, will work to reduce smoking in the county and encourage advocates for a smoke-free Horry County in the community.

The kickoff for the 18-month-long campaign was held Tuesday in Surfside Beach. The town is the only community in Horry County to have passed a smoking ban.

“The ultimate goal of the CPPW grant, Communities Putting Prevention to Work, is to have every community in Horry County have a smoke-free ordinance,” said Larry White, the Smoke Free Horry program coordinator and a Conway City Council member.

White said part of the grant money will be used to fund six positions for Smoke Free Horry: his position, a health systems coordinator, a second-hand smoke coordinator, a youth coordinator, a media coordinator and an administrative assistant.

One goal for all those positions will be to persuade the public to encourage local governments to pass no-smoking ordinances.

The youth coordinator will also work with schools to make sure there are comprehensive smoke-free policies in place in schools and to encourage youth involvement. The health systems coordinator will also help get the word out to local hospitals and health organizations about the S.C. Tobacco Quitline services, 1-800-QUIT-NOW, and about funding for nicotine replacement therapy.

Mary-Kathryn Craft, spokeswoman for DHEC’s division of tobacco prevention and control, said the grant will fund scientifically proven techniques.

She said it has been shown that people have a much better chance of successfully quitting smoking if they combine medication and therapy.

“The grant will help get medication for Horry residents to help them quit smoking,” Craft said.

Florence County was the only other community in South Carolina chosen for a grant and both are aiming at tobacco use, causing White and others to refer to the two as the “Florry” coalition.

Ian Hamilton, the statewide grant coordinator, said Horry and Florence counties were chosen for the grants for two reasons: They already had active community coalitions working on the issue and there was a high prevalence of smoking and smoking-related health problems.

Horry County has a smoking rate of 25 percent, said Sharon Biggers, director of the DHEC Division of Tobacco Prevention and Control.

Hamilton said he worked on a campaign to get Columbia smoke-free and remembers people saying, “‘Maybe you’ll get Columbia.’ … But people said, ‘Ah, well, you’ll never get Lexington County.'”

“Well, right now Lexington County is the most smoke-free county in the state,” he said.

White said he is optimistic that by March 2012, most of Horry County will be smoke-free.

“As Columbia goes, so goes the rest of the state. It’s like a fever,” he said. “It’s going to become the norm.”

He pointed out that many of the tourists who come to Horry County come from Northern states, where smoking is commonly banned in bars and restaurants.

“We don’t want to have to ask them smoking or nonsmoking,” he said.

Conway, where White serves on the City Council, is the only other area in Horry County to have seriously considered a smoking ban. In July 2007, the council put discussion of a smoking ban on hold and has not returned to the matter.

White said that discussion was before his election to the council in March 2009. He said he will be introducing his own ordinance.

“Timing is everything,” he said.

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SC Alert: Upcoming State Primaries – see who the antis are and take action!
SmokerPower.info now features a South Carolina State House and Senate Election call to action – find out who’s running, who’s an anti and who isn’t, and vote accordingly, or, for that matter, file for a seat and run yourself.
Action Alerts
The South Carolina Information Page
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