Smoking ban goes into effect Thursday.

Publication Date: 2005-08-28

• Author:PETER HIRSCHFELD
• Publication:Rutland (VT) Herald

This Thursday, Vermont's smoking culture recedes further into the shadows of a society increasingly intolerant of tobacco smoke.

It's been about 15 years since smokers could light up in airplanes; in 1993, the Legislature forced Vermont's restaurants to can the ashtrays. And on Sept. 1, the state's newest anti-smoking measure will prevent smokers from puffing away in one of their few remaining public venues Â- the bar.

The act will prohibit smoking in the 275 Vermont pubs, taverns and clubs that currently allow it. Despite heavy resistance from booze and beer purveyors across the state, the measure cruised through the Statehouse last session. And as the agencies responsible for enforcing the ban gear up for the looming deadline, bar owners are resigning themselves to life without cigarettes and, possibly, the paying customers addicted to them.