SPRINGFIELD MALL 1ST TO BAN SMOKING

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, March 6, 1993                   TAG: 9303060333
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SPRINGFIELD                                LENGTH: Short
SPRINGFIELD MALL 1ST TO BAN SMOKING
The Springfield Mall banned smoking on Friday, a move that apparently makes it the first shopping mall in Virginia to prohibit customers from lighting up.
Officials said smoking will not be allowed in any of the mall's 240 stores, food court or hallways.
Mall management decided to ban smoking in the building after receiving numerous complaints from shoppers.
"Scarcely a day has gone by in recent months when we have not gotten complaints about our customers being bothered by smoke," marketing director Sherry Lewis said.
People caught smoking inside the shopping center will be asked to go outside. Signs were to be posted throughout the building Friday.
Mall officials will try to handle smokers delicately, general manager David Pierson said. Although the shopping center doesn't want to lose customers, nonsmokers have the right to breathe clean air, he said.
"We get an awful lot of people that are becoming extremely irritated when they get around smoke," Pierson said. "It's only a matter of time until this becomes law."
Thomas Lauria, a spokesman for the Tobacco Institute, said the ban will "infringe on the discretion of the shoppers to enjoy themselves while shopping."
A check of other malls around the state found none that had banned smoking.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB