SPRINGFIELD - A trade group that represents liquor retailers is mounting a legal challenge to Springfield's new indoor smoking ban for public places.

The Illinois Licensed Beverage Association filed a lawsuit in Sangamon County Circuit Court Wednesday, seeking an injunction to prevent the ban from taking effect Sept. 17 in all indoor workplaces.

The association has also asked the court to nullify the sections of Springfield's Clean Indoor Air Ordinance that apply to bowling alleys and taverns, saying state law does not give the city the authority to include such establishments in its definition of "public places."

"We have been thinking about this for quite a while," said association executive director Steve Riedl.

The lawsuit contends that enforcement of the ordinance approved in January would cause "irreparable harm" to liquor-selling businesses in the form of lost patron revenue and goodwill.

But Springfield Alderman Bruce Strom, who sponsored the ordinance, dismissed the lawsuit as "frivolous."

"I think everybody who is knowledgeable with the state statute, including the governor and legislative leaders, believe the law does what everyone thinks it is intended to do, and that is to permit cities to regulate smoking in all places of employment," Strom said.

The only exemptions are for retail tobacco stores, nursing home rooms where all residents agree to have smoking, stage productions, hotel rooms, private vehicles and private homes not used for day care or as health facilities.

Under the Illinois Clean Indoor Air Act of 1990, only the 21 home-rule governments that had anti-smoking laws before October 1989 had the right to place greater restrictions on smoking than the state provided. The state requires only that public places have designated smoking and non-smoking areas.

Last summer, Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed a bill granting Springfield and all other home-rule communities the rights the 21 municipalities already had, including the right to ban smoking in bars and bowling alleys.

That bill's sponsor, Sen. John Cullerton, D-Chicago, said that while the original Illinois Clean Indoor Air Act excluded bowling alleys and bars from its definition of public places, that does not mean cities cannot regulate smoking within them.

This week, Blagojevich signed a bill that also gives counties the authority to ban smoking in unincorporated areas. Springfield Mayor Tim Davlin sought that legislation on behalf of city businesses concerned about losing customers to bars outside the city limits that allow smoking.

Sangamon County officials are expected to consider a possible smoking ban later in the summer.