Friday, June 13, 2008

We can all breathe a little easier now


It took a while, but Pennsylvania finally has a statewide smoking ban.

Gov. Ed Rendell, at right in an Associated Press photo, signed the Clean Indoor Air Act into law Friday morning at a business in Ambler, Montgomery County. The law will take effect in 90 days. Pennsylvania is the 33rd state to enact such a ban.

The ban covers restaurants, office buildings, theaters, arenas and more.

Exemptions will allow smoking to continue in bars and taverns that have limited food service, casinos, private clubs, nursing homes, tobacco-related businesses and volunteer ambulance, fire and rescue squads.

"This is one of the most important steps in public health this state has made in recent years," Rendell said at the signing ceremony in Ambler, in the district of the bill's primary sponsor, Sen. Stewart Greenleaf, R-Montgomery.

Rendell has pushed for a smokefree law as a way to cut health care costs.

Now when dining, we can all breathe a little easier, and our clothes will smell a little nicer, too.

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