Sad DAY! However, there are over 700 business applying for state exemptions to the ban and those businesses that applied for one will be permitted to allow smoking until a decision is made on their application.
Patriot News Article:
With the state's smoking ban set to take effect at midnight, already 700 businesses have applied to be exempted from the law, said Dr. Calvin Johnson, Pennsylvania health secretary.
'I have no idea as to how many we should expect. I quite honestly think 700 is too many and I hope we don't get anymore," said Johnson at a Capitol news conference to announce the law on the eve of its effective date.
The law bans smoking indoors in most workplaces and public places, but carves out exceptions for such places as cigar bars, taverns where food sales comprise no more than 20 percent of their annual sales, up to 25 percent of rooms in hotels and portions of casino floors.
So far, no exemptions has been granted, he said. But businesses that applied for one will be permitted to allow smoking until a decision is made on their application, Johnson said.
Those who receive an exemption must apply annually, but steps will be taken to make that process as simple as possible for businesses, a health department official said.
Anti-smoking advocates in attendance at the news conference joined Johnson in hailing Thursday as a "great day for the health of all Pennsylvanians."
Sen. Stewart Greenleaf, R-Montgomery County, who has fought for a smoking ban for 15 years, said the law will allow 95 percent of state workplaces to be smoke-free. Yet, he isn't content with that. He already is at work drafting legislation to be introduced in the next legislative session that starts in January to raise that percentage even higher.
He said someone asked him if he intended to celebrate the fruits of his 15 years of labor on this issue by lighting up a cigar on Thursday. If he does, he assured it would happen outside.
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