Fast feeders burning over new smoking recommendation - includes related article on Raleigh, North Carolina restaurant operators' case against Wake County Board of Health

Fast-food operators are fuming over a recent report by legal watchdogs that singles them out as particularly dangerous to non-smokers -- especially children -- and appeals to their civic responsibility to ban smoking systemwide immediately.

Titled "Fast-Food, Growing Children and Passive Smoke: A Dangerous Menu," the report -- issued by the attorneys general of 15 states -- recommends that fast-food franchisors immediately make all corporate stores smoke-free, include smoke-free policies in new franchise agreements and encourage franchisees to be smoke-free, remove cigarette vending machines from stores, post warnings about the dangers of passive smoke and support legislation banning smoking from restaurants.

The report was met with indignation from fast-food feeders, who stated that they are law abiding and would follow any future federal, state or local regulations concerning smoking in public places, but that they would not dictate lifestyle choices for customers on a recommendation alone.

"We see this issue as a public-policy issue, not a fast-food issue," said Gary Gerdemann, spokesman for KFC Corp. "It's a measure for society to rule on, and not for Burger King or KFC to rule on. Our business is not to establish policy for society. Our business is to provide quick, delicious, hot meals at a good price."

Fast-food operators were targeted because they tend to draw large numbers of patrons and employees less than 18 years old -- a group particularly vulnerable to illnesses associated with secondhand smoking, said Robert Abrams, New York state's attorney general.

"Because fast-food restaurants successfully market to children and because teen-agers make up a large segment of the fast-food work force, these restaurant chains have a special obligation to shield these young customers and workers from the hazards associated with exposure to passive smoke," he said.

Abrams said that according to restaurant industry estimates, 25 percent of fast-food customers are less than the age of 18, and 10 percent are under the age of 10. In addition, children under the age of 18 constitute about 40 percent of fast-food employees.

The attorney general became interested in the issue after the Environmental Protection Agency earlier this year introduced a report linking secondhand smoke to cancer and respiratory illness.

Their interest was compounded by a lawsuit filed in Connecticut last spring against McDonald's, Burger King and Wendy's by mothers os asthmatics. The suit charges that their children are being discriminated against under the Americans with Disabilities Act because their reaction to smoke bars them from fast-food restaurants.

Burger King has filed a motion to dismiss the suit, but no judgment has yet been made, said Michael Evans, Burger King spokesman. In any case the company continues to accommondate custoer preferences, he added.

"There are 6,000 Burger Kings in the United States, and 5,200 are franchised," he said. "We have allowed the local franchises to set their own smoking policies, and so far about 600 of those 5,200 have optedd to go smoke-free.

"For the remaining 800 or so company restaurants, we offer segregated smoking and non-smoking sections in restaurants that are identified by signs," he continued. "The cave-at to this is where there are state or local ordinances prohibiting smoking in public places. Where that's the case, we obviously have to comply."

McDonald's now has 1,500 smoke-free units out of about 9,000 nationwide, according to spokeswoman Ann Connolly.

"We haven't seen the report, so we can't respond specifically," she said. "We think this is an important issue that all public places should be concerned with. Our [smoke-free] tests are ongoing, and that's to see how customers would feel if we asked them not to smoke."

Test results are not yet in, but the number of units going smoke-free continues to grow, Connolly said.

The attorneys general who collaborated on the report represent Arizona, Connecticut, Idaho, Iowa, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Wisconsin and the Hawaii Office of Consumer Protection.

COPYRIGHT 1993 Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group