( early a month ago the House provided a...)Senate assures ban on smoking,Health

early a month ago, the House provided a veto-proof blessing to the statewide smoking ban, and the Senate followed suit last night after three days of debate, voting 29 to 10. Minor differences between the two bills will have to be worked out, but last night's action ensures that the ban will become the law of the Commonwealth starting July 5, 2004, with violators facing fines as high as $300. "It's one of the most concrete victories for workers' health and public health that we've seen in Massachusetts in a long time," said Diane Pickles, executive director of Tobacco Free Massachusetts, an advocacy group.

The vote is a major victory for public health advocates who have devoted more than a decade to jousting with the tobacco industry over a prohibition that has swept cities and states across the country. Nearly 100 Massachusetts cities, including Boston, have adopted bans, and the state is poised to become the sixth with a blanket ban on smoking in virtually all public places.

Under both the House and Senate versions of the ban, smoking would still be allowed in nursing homes, though it would be confined to specially designated areas. Cigarettes also could be smoked in private clubs, fraternal organizations, and cigar bars that can prove more than half of their revenues come from tobacco sales. Republican opponents of the measure said the exemptions highlighted the policy's flaws.

"If you're an employee of a nursing home, you can still be exposed to smoke every day," said Senator Richard R. Tisei, Republican of Wakefield. "Maybe we didn't include people who work in nursing homes because they're poor -- many of them are immigrants; they're on the lower rung."

The measure lifting the Commonwealth's Sunday liquor sales ban, a law rooted in the state's Puritan past, lets individual communities decide whether they want to allow Sunday sales. The Legislature voided many of the other so-called blue laws nearly three de
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