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

DATE: SUNDAY, May 9, 1993                   TAG: 9305090176
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Short

POLL: SMOKERS' RIGHTS OK, BUT NOT IN BUILDINGS

Sixty-six percent of Virginians polled favor laws banning smoking in indoor public gathering places, while 61 percent favor laws protecting the rights of smokers, according to a poll released Saturday.

Mason-Dixon Political-Media Research Inc. of Columbia, Md., interviewed 818 randomly selected voters by telephone from April 29 through May 1. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

The poll found 49 percent of those survey believed tobacco was important to the state's economy. But 94 percent said smoking was bad for one's health.

While appearing to support smoking bans, 61 percent said employers should be required to provide smoking areas for employees and be prohibited from discriminating against employees who smoke.

Support for higher cigarette taxes appeared link to the size of that increase. Forty percent said they would favor a $2-a-pack increase; 48 percent supported a $1-a-pack increase; and 66 percent supported a 50-cent-a-pack hike.

Such a tax has been suggested as a means to pay for universal health insurance.

Sixty-three percent said they favored federal aid to tobacco farmers to help them convert to other crops.

by CNB