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· North Carolina
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The law makes an exception, but only for country clubs or nonprofit organizations, such as Elks Lodges.
Jump to full article: Charlotte (NC) Observer, 2009-10-27
Author: Mark Johnson
Intro: Some bar owners and managers across North Carolina think they have found an escape clause in the state's new smoking ban.
State officials are about to snuff out those plans.
Ann Houston Staples, the Charlotte-based communications director for the state's anti-smoking efforts, said health officials are encountering bar operators who think that, as a private club or by becoming a private club, they can still let customers smoke.
"I'm getting spooked, because everybody I talk to said the place they go to is going to become a private club," said Staples, director of public education and communication for the Tobacco Prevention and Control Branch of the Department of Health and Human Services.
Staples is part of a team assembling an information packet that will go out in the coming weeks to businesses affected by the ban, including bars. The mailing will include a letter that explains the law and offers other material, such as free "No Smoking" signs.
The ban on smoking in bars and restaurants that the legislature passed this year takes effect Jan. 2 and does include an exemption for private clubs, but it defines them as country clubs or nonprofits, such as an Elks Lodge.
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