RALEIGH, N.C. - A bill that would have banned smoking in restaurants and hotels statewide fell a few votes short of passage in the House this year, marking another painful defeat for anti-smoking forces in North Carolina.

But the defeat of even a watered-down version of the bill, which originally would have banned smoking in most restaurants, bars, offices and factories, may hide an otherwise successful year at the General Assembly when it comes to reducing smoking and the effects of secondhand smoke.

Bills signed into law or awaiting action by Gov. Mike Easley will ban smoking inside adult care and nursing homes and all state government buildings. University of North Carolina leaders can now prohibit smoking in more campus buildings and 100-feet buffer zones around them. Public schools also were told to adopt stricter no-smoking policies that also apply to off-campus events.

The restrictions follow a recent trend in which protecting North Carolina's tobacco heritage has ceded priority among legislators to smoking's dangers.

"Given that North Carolina is the largest tobacco producing state in the country, I think this Legislature has moved a lot faster than I ever thought they would," said Easley, who was raised on a Nash County tobacco farm. "They've put the health of the people ahead of the industry."

Health advocates were brimming with optimism heading into this year's legislative session after a series of legislative victories and new data designed to persuade opinion about secondhand smoke.

In 2005, lawmakers passed a budget that raised the cigarette tax from 5 cents per pack to 35 cents. Smoking bans now cover prisons, outside local health department buildings and inside the Legislative Building.

"It's just a changing attitude on the part of the whole state. People are more health conscious," said Rep. Hugh Holliman, D-Davidson, a lung cancer survivor.

Holliman's 2005 bill requiring restaurants to set aside most of their dining space for nonsmokers failed narrowly in the House.

But advocates were hopeful a stronger bill would pass this year after the U.S. surgeon general urged smoke-free buildings and public places. Polling showed a majority of state residents wanted those kinds of restrictions as well.

A broader bill introduced this year by Holliman, now the House majority leader, passed a House committee in March but got retooled when there weren't enough votes for floor passage.

The later version kept the ban on restaurants and hotels, but excluded restaurant-bars when a minimum age was required to enter, along with smoking-designated hotel rooms.

The North Carolina Restaurant and Lodging Association opposed the measure because it put its members at a competitive disadvantage with some exempt restaurants. And the bill would have eliminated a 1993 law barring local governments from passing smoking ordinances more restrictive than the state regulations, leaving the door open for even tougher laws.

"We believe that proprietors of adult-only facilities ... should have the authority to decide for themselves what smoking policy best suits their clientele," said Maura Payne, a spokeswoman for Winston-Salem-based Reynolds American, parent of the nation's No. 2 cigarette manufacturer.

The bill failed 61-55 after several Democrats from tobacco-growing regions voted against the bill.

"The advocates have more work to do on the danger of secondhand smoke," said Pam Semans, executive director of the N.C. Alliance for Health. "There is some skepticism that breathing someone else's exhaled smoke is as dangerous to you as the surgeon general says it is."

One of those who voted against the bill was Rep. Nelson Cole of Rockingham County, who said he opposed the restrictions on restaurants and hotels because their owners already have the right to ban smoking if their customers want it. The measure only heaps more government restrictions on already regulated business owners, he said.

"As a business owner there are a lot of things that you have to adhere to," Cole said. "This is one that you can self-impose."

But Cole said he had few issues with other bills restricting smoking this year because they involved schools and government buildings. And the ban within adult care homes came after a cigarette was to blame for a patient's death in Davie County.

All cruised to final passage by wide margins.

"There are fewer people producing tobacco today," Cole said. "The consequences of that impact on our society and our state has diminished considerably."

Holliman said it will take longer than expected when the session opened to sway colleagues in tobacco areas about the need to ban smoking in workplaces and in restaurants.

People are still worried that jobs will be lost if such a broad public smoking law is enacted, but Holliman added the cleaner, healthier air will be welcomed: "When we pass a smoking ban, six months later then everyone will be wondering why we waited so long."

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