Tobacco.org

EDITORIAL: No smoking - a law, not a suggestion 

With too few health department inspectors to keep up with the complaints, bar owners have low odds of actually being fined.

In contrast, there's only one reason why Ohio bar owners should enforce the smoking ban:

It's the law. . . .

Since Ohio's ban, more than 180 restaurants in Northern Kentucky have voluntarily gone smoke-free. Further, the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce supports a smoking ban like that of Ohio.

It's true that, in Ohio, health departments have not been able to keep up with the flood of complaints about violations. Perhaps state officials could use the last of the dwindling funds from the tobacco settlement to pay for more enforcement.

In the meantime, the most responsible step for bar owners is to uniformly obey the law as it now stands, whether they eventually decide to again bring the matter before voters or not.

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