Tobacco Control Laws in Pittsburgh

In 1987, the Pittsburgh City Council passed the "Smoking Pollution Control Ordinance."  The ordinance stated, " The right of smokers to smoke ends where their action affects the health, well-being and comfort of others."  It eliminated smoking in most public places, required non-smoking sections in restaurants, and required employers to make an effort to provide a smoke free workplace.  A copy of this ordinance can be found through Municode.  There doesn't seem to be a way to link to it directly, but it's Title Six, Article I, Chapter 617 of the Pittsburgh Code.

Although the requirements of this ordinance were weak by current standards, they were very progressive at the time, and other cities started considering similar ordinances.  The tobacco industry got worried.  It couldn't fight every local community, so it lobbied for the Pennsylvania Clean Indoor Air (CIA) Act of 1998.   This act purported to protect the public health, but its provisions were very weak and, most importantly to the tobacco industry, it preempted local communities from passing their own laws.  The preemption provision effectively stopped the progress of tobacco control.  Years and thousands of deaths and addicted children later, we're still suffering the consequences.

Unfortunately, in the summer of 2002, the legislature enacted yet another preemptive law, this time regulating the sale and marketing of tobacco.  This law shifted the responsibility for under age tobacco purchases to the under age purchasers, and away from store owners and the tobacco companies that produce the product and advertise and market it to children.  It overturned much stronger local regulations, for example those previously enacted by the Allegheny County Board of Health.  Amazingly, this legislation was supported by the American Cancer Society (ACS), which failed to understand the harm that would be caused by the preemptive provisions, leading to the resignation of a member of the board.   

The tobacco industry knows that it can't fight local communities, where the activists and the mayor might be neighbors, and where personal relationships and reputations are more important than lobbyists and large campaign contributions.  That's why the tobacco industry always goes for state preemption, and why repealing preemption would be the single biggest step forward that could be made in Pennsylvania and every other state in which preemption has been enacted. The tobacco industry knows this too, which is why it fights twice as hard to keep preemption.  So far, only Maine has been able to get rid of it.