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Kicking the habit / Officials drift closer to smoking ban 

With Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino's endorsement of a 100 percent smoking ban a virtual guarantee that it will happen there, Cambridge city councilors and health officials are more optimistic about the city's ability to pass a similar, although less stringent, bill.

Cambridge and Boston are both affiliated with Clean Air Works, a coalition working to ban smoking in workplaces throughout the Boston metropolitan area. The Boston Public Health Commission drafted regulations for a smoking ban on Friday.

"The beauty of what we are doing is we are taking a regional approach. We are not asking Cambridge to go out on a limb. We are not asking Cambridge to do anything alone," said Public Health Director Harold Cox at a working meeting of the City Council's ordinance committee Wednesday, Sept. 25.

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