Almost half the states now have comprehensive smoking bans on the books, but no neighboring states have restrictions quite as stringent as what's being proposed in South Dakota.

"We've all seen the studies that show the danger of secondhand smoke. People who don't smoke are involuntarily subjected to it," said Sen. Stan Adelstein, R-Rapid City, a co-sponsor of the bill. "That's the reason for the total removal of exceptions."

Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia, including Colorado, Minnesota, Nebraska and Montana, have passed comprehensive smoking laws, according to the American Lung Association.

Exceptions in those states include hotel rooms, tobacco product shops, scientific studies and traditional Native American ceremonies.

South Dakota is one of 20 states, including North Dakota and Wyoming, the lung association classifies as having weak smoke-free restrictions.

Nebraska

Nebraska's revised smoke-free workplace law goes into effect June 1 and includes only three exemptions: up to 20 percent of a hotel's sleeping rooms, tobacco-only retailers and smoking research.

Sara Morgan, indoor air-quality program manager for the Nebraska Department of Health & Human Services, said the relatively few exemptions helped ensure support from the Nebraska Restaurant Association and Big Red Keno, the largest keno operator in the state.

"Some of those exemptions are in there, but they're pretty minor. That's why we had such support from industry," Morgan said. "When you start piecemealing the ban and allow some folks to smoke indoors and others can't, it's hard to get good compliance and implementation."

Bill Harvey, general counsel for Big Red Keno, said his company had opposed local smoking bans but changed its position when the statewide ban was proposed.

"When we were looking at local bans, we wanted exemptions in there. When you have a local ban, you have an unequal playing field," Harvey said. "Once it's statewide, the fewer exemptions you have, the better you are."

The keno operator has lost revenue in Omaha and Lincoln, cities that already banned smoking indoors, but a statewide ban promises to level that playing field, Harvey said.

"As long as these bans are done on a broad statewide basis, the economic effects are really not that significant," he said. "Someone doesn't lose the right to a healthy environment just because they step on the floor of a casino."

The tobacco retail exemption applies to businesses that only sell tobacco and its related products, Morgan said.

"If it's a hookah place that only sells tobacco and just provides a place to smoke, then they'd meet the definition," Morgan said.

Minnesota

Minnesota banned smoking indoors in all public places as of Oct. 1, 2007.

The Freedom to Breathe Act, which revised the existing Minnesota Clean Indoor Air Act, includes 10 exemptions: approved scientific studies, traditional Native American ceremonies, hotel rooms, tobacco product shops, commercial vehicles, farm trucks, family farm buildings, theatrical productions, the Disabled Veterans Rest Camp and locked psychiatric wards.

"When you consider that the prohibition applies to all public places, there are actually very few places that are exempt," said John Olson, the act's enforcement coordinator.

Beyond an organized attempt by bars to get around the ban by hosting "theater nights," Olson said the Department of Health has fielded few complaints about the misuse of exemptions and compliance has been high.

"There's a lot of policing by average citizens saying, 'Hey, that's not legal anymore,' and we never hear about it," Olson said. "I think that happens a lot more than we may even realize."

Under the tobacco shop exemption, smoking indoors is legal only if customers are sampling a product. To qualify, shops must earn more than 90 percent of their gross revenue from tobacco products and cannot have a liquor or food license, Olson said.

"What we've found with businesses like hookah lounges, they're not selling a product, they're selling a service - the time using their instruments, their smoking accessories," Olson said.

Hookah lounge owners in the Twin Cities were not pleased with the decision to exclude them, and Olson knows they haven't all closed their doors.

"There are still tobacco product shops that push the limit with having lounge-type settings," Olson said. "The devil's in the details, trying to determine whether a particular activity is sampling or not. That's where it gets difficult as an enforcement person."

Contact Emilie Rusch at 394-8453 or emilie.rusch@rapidcityjournal.com.