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• West Virginia: Berkeley Co. Health board snuffs out clean-air proposals 

MARTINSBURG, W.VA. --In what the Berkeley County Health Department administrator called a "totally unexpected chain of events," the county's board of health Monday unanimously voted down changes to the county's clean-air ordinance.

The Berkeley County Board of Health voted 5-0 in favor of not imposing tougher restrictions on smoking in public spaces and workplaces, according to Bill Kearns, the county's health department administrator, who authored much of the proposal.

"Basically, the clean-air indoor ordinance of 2001 stands and no revision was approved," Kearns said in a telephone interview after the meeting.

Martinsburg Mayor George Karos, a member of the board, made a motion to vote in favor of not implementing the changes, Kearns said.

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