Pennsylvania stubbing out public smoking

The law allows many exemptions, such as private clubs and casinos.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Smokers who enjoy lighting up in restaurants after a meal or at work during a lunch break have only a few more days before a new law makes them quit the habit.

Pennsylvania’s smoking ban takes effect Thursday — 90 days after it was signed into law June 13.

“We’re confident that business owners are prepared,” state Health Department spokeswoman Holli Senior said.

Pennsylvania joins 32 other states with legislation on the books to forbid smoking in most workplaces and public spaces, from restaurants and train stations to office buildings and sports arenas. Businesses or people who break the law would face fines of up to $250 for a first offense and up to $1,000 for repeat offenders.

The compromise measure, the product of a drawn-out battle at the Capitol, does not go as far as most of the other state bans. It includes a string of complicated exemptions — so many that the American Lung Association declined to give the law its endorsement.

Even with the new law, smokers in Pennsylvania may be able to continue lighting up in some hotel rooms, private clubs, casinos, nursing homes and bars where food accounts for no more than 20 percent of annual sales. The city of Philadelphia, however, has its own more restrictive ban.

“Any time you have exemptions, they detract from the strength of the law,” said Deborah Brown, spokeswoman for the American Lung Association. “They create confusion when you’re trying to introduce and implement the law ... and they leave individuals unprotected from secondhand smoke.”

Although implementing a smoking ban is a clear improvement over doing nothing, Brown said, “we will continue to work on this till those gaps are closed.”

Senior said that health officials have been working with state restaurant and tavern associations and other groups representing businesses affected by the smoking ban to make sure everyone’s clear on what is and isn’t allowed.

The Health Department also has produced information packets for businesses that explain the ban, address frequently asked questions, and provide tips for how to tell patrons about the change. Online, it has made available downloadable “No Smoking” signs.

The agency has received good feedback from businesses, she said, and is receiving calls on its hot line. “We know people are reading the law and they get it,” she said.

The toll-free hot line for specific questions about the law or complaints about noncompliant businesses is (877) 835-9535.

There won’t be compliance officers monitoring businesses, so health officials are counting on the public to report people or places violating the ban, she said.

Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia have what the Lung Association categorizes as comprehensive bans, which effectively outlaw smoking in all public places with few or no exceptions.