Sunday, February 15 2009
By Brian Callaway
(The Morning Call)
Health officials may relax the state's new ban on indoor smoking in response to lawyers' complaints about rules against lighting up in hotel bars.
Judy Ochs, director of the state Health Department's Division of Tobacco Prevention and Control, said the department is doing a legal review after attorneys for about a dozen hotels called to challenge the ban.
Trey Matheu, general manager of a western Pennsylvania resort that now prohibits smoking in its cigar bar because of the new law, said he hopes the state will relent without a protracted court battle.
"We'd like them to take a second look at the legislation," Matheu said.The law went into effect in September 2008, banning smoking inside most public buildings and businesses. Some businesses, including many freestanding bars, were allowed to apply for exemptions.
Pennsylvania rethinks smoking ban in hotel bars after lawsuits are threatened continues...
