Aug. 9--Last call for smokers! 

Mayor Bloomberg is set to propose legislation next week that would ban smoking in city bars and restaurants, the Daily News has learned. 

"This would be no exceptions," said one source with knowledge of the proposal. 

The sweeping crackdown is aimed at protecting restaurant workers from the ill effects of secondhand smoke, the source said. 

It would put New York, long the capital of the smoke-filled barroom, in the forefront of a growing anti-tobacco movement. 

California and Delaware have adopted statewide bans on smoking in bars and other public places, as have dozens of municipalities around the country. 

But Bloomberg's smokeout, which would have to be approved by the City Council, would be the first total ban attempted in New York State, sources said. 

Current laws permit smoking in stand-alone bars and taverns, in establishments with fewer than 35 seats and in restaurant bar areas that are ventilated separately from eating areas. 

Anti-smoking laws faced stiff resistance from restaurant owners and the tobacco industry when they were pushed through by then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani in January 1995. 

But that battle will likely be remembered as a mere tempest compared with the storm that Bloomberg's smokeout will stir. 

The proposal comes six weeks after Bloomberg -- in his crusade to stamp out smoking in New York -- pushed through a $1.42 increase in the city's per-pack tax on cigarettes. That pushed the cost to $7.50, the highest in the nation. 

A spokesman for tobacco giant Philip Morris vowed last night the company would resist any attempt to stamp out smoking in bars and restaurants. 

"We believe a total ban goes too far and does not respect the rights of business owners," said spokesman Brendan McCormick. 

Risk to workers Bloomberg is expected to rely heavily on new research that focuses on the dangers of secondhand smoke to restaurant workers. 

One study, for instance, found that bartenders who work an eight-hour shift inhale the equivalent of a half-pack of cigarettes a night. Another concluded that bartenders are 1 1/2 to two times more likely to die of lung cancer than workers in smoke-free environments. 

Restaurant officials said that because of Bloomberg's focus on workers, his proposal might be tough to stamp out. 

"We are not going to dispute the health impacts of secondhand smoke," said Rick Sampson, president of the New York State Restaurant Association. "And if that's his argument, he has got a very hard one to dispute." 

Sampson added that because the ban hits bars and restaurants equally, no one can argue it is forcing people to leave one place of business for another to smoke. 

City Councilwoman Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan), head of the Health Committee, said she would support the measure. 

"We will give everyone a chance to make their case," said Quinn. "But in the end, I hope we will be passing a bill that is as similar as possible." 

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