Wednesday, August 09 2006
MARYLAND - Smoking became illegal this week at new restaurants and bars in Howard County, making it the fifth jurisdiction in the Washington region to restrict smoking and adding to momentum for a statewide Maryland ban.
The prohibition, which took effect Tuesday, also applies to public meetings, sporting events, concert venues such as Merriweather Post Pavilion and to a 15- foot zone outside entrances to places where the ban is in effect.
Bars and restaurants with separate smoking areas have until June 2007 to go smoke-free.
Three Maryland counties - Montgomery, Prince George's and Talbot - already prohibit smoking in restaurants and bars. A fourth, Charles County, has outlawed smoking in restaurants. In the District, which prohibits smoking in restaurants, a ban on smoking in bars will take effect in January.
Public health advocates hope Howard's ban will generate support in the General Assembly for a statewide prohibition. The legislature has rejected efforts to pass such a measure.
"I think this is going to give us the tipping point to make the entire state go smoke-free," said Glenn E. Schneider, legislative chairman of Smoke Free Howard County. "We feel very certain that we're going to get smoke-free air throughout the state."
Individuals who violate the law face a $100 fine; businesses face a $250 fine.
The ban's implementation comes after more than a decade of contentious debate. In 1996, Howard banned smoking in restaurants and bars, except for those with separately ventilated smoking areas.
Efforts to ban smoking completely gained traction last fall, when County Executive James N. Robey (D) proposed a measure prohibiting smoking in restaurants and bars but giving establishments with separately ventilated smoking areas until 2008 to comply.
The council instead voted, 3 to 2, for a ban giving businesses with separate smoking areas until 2010 to comply. Robey vetoed the measure, saying he did not want to wait that long for the ban to take effect.
The political stalemate led many analysts to conclude that the likelihood of a smoking ban being passed before the November elections was slim. But the measure gained new life in the spring, when council member David A. Rakes (D-East Columbia), who voted for the four-year phase-in, resigned and was replaced by Calvin Ball (D), who supported a one-year phase-in.
The newly configured council passed the measure that took effect this week. Opponents of the ban worried that it would cripple businesses with large smoking clientele and said it was unnecessary because 83 percent of the county's eating and drinking establishments already prohibited smoking.
Schneider said his group is writing letters to the establishments that allow smoking urging them to go smoke-free before they are required to do so next summer.
"Now is the time to do it," he said. "We hope they take our advice to go smoke-free like the rest of the world is doing."
Source: WashingtonPost.com, as reported by Amit R. Paley
Published: August 10, 2006
