New Orleans local smokes outside of business, Wednesday May 20, 2009. (Ray Tyler/NYT Institute)

In an 8-7 vote, Louisiana’s House of Representatives Health and Welfare Committee on Tuesday approved a bill that would impose a complete smoking ban in bars with an amendment to extend the ban to state casinos.

In 2006, after multiple attempts, Louisiana banned smoking in restaurants, schools and other public places-but left bars exempt from the rule, causing conflict between bar and restaurant owners in the state.

“What they did was give bars an unfair advantage over restaurants,” said Wendy Waren, vice president of communications at the Louisiana Restaurant Association. Customers who smoke while eating shifted toward eating in bars, she said.

“I’m not sure if I want to buy the analogy that it’s an unfair advantage,” said John LaBruzzo, R-Metairie. “I think there’s another side to the coin.”

The bill, proposed by Gary Smith, a Democrat serving St. Charles and St. John the Baptist parishes, faced harsh criticism from some members of the committee.

Most of the bill’s opponents were Republicans, who were joined by Democrats Fred Wills, from Parks, and Patrick Williams, of Shreveport. Republicans Rogers Pope, from Denham Springs, and committee chairman Kay Katz, from Monroe, supported the bill. Democrats Robert Johnson, of Marksville ,and Bernard LaBas, of Ville Platte, were not present.

“We’re kind of doing to the smokers what we did to the Indians,” said Rickey L. Nowlin, a Republican serving Natchitoches and Winn parishes.

“Where do the smokers go?” he asked.

The answer could be the Mississippi coast, LaBruzzo suggested, or Texas, since neither state has a ban on smoking in bars and casinos. That could reduce both cigarette tax revenue and consumer spending in Louisiana, he said.

Some bar owners and employees also testified against the proposed rule.

The Hookah Café on Frenchmen Street in New Orleans closed because of the smoking ban in restaurants, owner Gil Birman said. Birman said he had planned to reopen the café as a bar, but if the bill becomes law , he and his 25 employees may be out of work once again.

Meredith Towns, Birman’s former office manager at the café, told the committee that she thought people ought to be allowed to choose for themselves whether they smoke in bars. “We’re adults, we can decide this on our own.”

Speaking for the bill, Rep. Smith said that his chief concern is the health of customers and employees, regardless of protests from businesses, concerns over revenue or complaints that the ban infringes on consumer freedom.

“The studies are indisputable that second-hand smoke is a public health concern,” he said. “This is no longer a matter of choice, it’s truly a matter of public health.”

The Louisiana Public Health Institute cites smoking-related complications as the largest annual cause of preventable death in Louisiana, with 6,500 adults dying annually. Second-hand smoke kills approximately 780 adults in the state per year, according to the Louisiana Tobacco Control Program. Passage of the bill would make Louisiana the 17th state in America to enact such a law.

The American Heart Association, The Louisiana Hospital Association and The American Cancer Society also support the bill.

The LRA is a supporter, although some of its member businesses are bars benefitting from being exempt from the ban.

Referring to the competition between restaurants and bars, Waren said the LRA had altered its usual opposition to government intervention because “now they’ve divided and conquered us.”

The bill now goes to the full House.