Albany -- Local health offices to decide if businesses should be exempt from tobacco ban
Jump to full article: Albany (NY) Times-Union, 2003-09-06
Author: ANDREW TILGHMAN, Staff writer
Intro: Local health officials are struggling with their newfound authority to grant exemptions to the state's six-week-old smoking ban, leaving bar and restaurant owners banking on a waiver in limbo.
"It's a very difficult position for us to be in," said Jack Parisi, director of environmental health for Schenectady County.
State health officials said in July that they did not believe the no-smoking law allowed any waivers, but they now say that was a mistake and have left it up to county health departments to decide if a business should be exempt.
As word of potential waivers spread this week, business owners began lining up seeking the exemption. But health officials said they will not grant any waivers until they receive more guidance on where smokers could be permitted to light up in public. . . .
A loophole allows county health departments to grant waivers for business owners who face financial hardship "which would render compliance unreasonable." Interpreting the criteria for financial hardship and a timetable for doing so is up to each county. . . .
Some fear the rules could vary greatly from county to county, local politics could play a factor in who gets the waivers, or counties might deliberately relax standards to encourage smokers from outlying areas to come and bolster local businesses.
"What you get is arbitrary and capricious standards of every local department of health," Wexler said.
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