Assembly finalizes statewide smoking ban

Publication Date: 2007-04-09

• Author:Andrew A. Green
• Publication:Baltimore Sun

The General Assembly gave final passage to a ban on smoking in bars and restaurants today, rejecting most proposed exemptions to the law and ensuring that all businesses will be smoke-free in 2011.

The House of Delegates voted 100-40 to approve the measure today. The Senate gave its blessing on Friday. Gov. Martin O'Malley has pledged to sign the bill.

Health advocates have been trying for a decade to ban smoking in bars and restaurants, the only businesses that were exempted from a law that passed in 1995. The Maryland Restaurant Association and other business groups fought against the bill again this year, but momentum tipped in favor of the measure this year after Baltimore City joined Howard, Montgomery, Prince George's and Talbot counties in banning smoking.

The compromise between the House and Senate calls for the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to draw up guidelines to provide waivers to businesses that can prove the ban is a hardship. The waivers would be granted by local health departments but would expire Jan. 31, 2011. The legislation also bans smoking in private clubs, such as American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars halls.

If O'Malley signs the bill, it would become law Oct. 1, but the bill gives the state health department time to draw up regulations for the hardship waivers, so it would actually take effect Feb. 1, 2008.