Smoke-free restaurant law less than two weeks away
Just 12 days remain until a new Virginia law restricting smoking in restaurants goes into effect.
Starting Dec. 1, smoking will be prohibited in restaurants, with some exceptions. Smokers and proprietors who violate the law will face civil penalties of $25.
More than 70 percent of full-service and fast-food restaurants in the state already are nonsmoking, according to the Virginia Department of Health. Public-health officials and some business groups say they expect to see that percentage rise significantly once the new law is effective.
The law, passed by the General Assembly and signed by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine earlier this year, provides some exceptions. For example, private clubs such as fraternal organizations are exempt. Restaurants also may allow smoking in rooms that are separately enclosed and separately vented from nonsmoking areas. Smoking may be permitted in outdoor areas of restaurants that are not enclosed.
Even restaurants that have exempt areas can go entirely smoke-free voluntarily, which is exactly what many advocates are expecting to see. Some restaurants might take steps to provide separate smoking areas, but "the majority are going smoke-free completely," said David DeBiasi, director of public advocacy for the American Lung Association of Virginia. -- John Reid Blackwell
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Reader Reactions
It’s not going to affect business much at all. I’ve been up north where you can’t smoke in the bars and those places were packed. The smokers would just step outside for a smoke and then come back in. Business will be booming as usual.
While I don’t agree with the govt. telling a private business owner what to do, I do agree with regulations creating separate ventilated walled-off rooms for smoking. That is the only real way to keep smoke away from the non-smokers who don’t want to breathe it.
My friends and I have been waiting years for this and will absolutely be going out more….and not just on December 1st! So good luck with your smokers boycott. So you have to step outside to smoke. Wow, so difficult. Its about time Virginia caught up with DC, Maryland, Delaware, NJ, NY, etc. Long overdue!!!
Total control types like Tim Kaine (his legacy) cannot function without taking freedoms from you to give power to Big Govmint.
I’ll be out there smoking up as many places as I can before the deadline.
Hey Smokers, How about a little protest by boycotting restuarants and bars for the week of Dec 1st! Would love to see the reaction of restaurant owners. And no, I don’t think the non-smokers will make up that difference. Maybe they will show up on 12/1 but what about the days after.
And hey, couldn’t the state now use some of that lost tobacco tax money from not just smokers, but also the tobacco companies!
Promote “Roll ur Own”
Finally, I can go out to eat without ending up nauseous from someone else’s secondhand smoke. (For the record, I have physiological reactions to tobacco and some of the non-tobacco ingredients in cigarettes. Smokers, do you really know what you’re inhaling?) For all those people who are protesting the potential loss of business, I point you to other cities, like Chicago, where the smoking ban has not closed anybody’s business. In fact, Chicago now has MORE businesses, due to the opening of hookah lounges and the like.
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