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by ILss
on Sun Apr 15, 2007 12:47 am |
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Article published Saturday, April 14, 2007
2 court actions filed to bar ban on smoking from taking effect
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070414/NEWS02/704140399/-1/NEWS
BLADE COLUMBUS BUREAU
COLUMBUS - Two court actions have been filed to prevent new smoking-ban rules from taking effect even before a legislative panel takes them up on Monday.
The Buckeye Liquor Permit Holders Association and the Ohio Licensed Beverage Associations, whose members are largely bars and restaurants, filed actions this week in Hamilton and Franklin County common pleas courts respectively.
Both argue the Ohio Department of Health overstepped its authority when it proposed a last-minute exemption for some veterans groups and other private clubs, which bars, restaurants, bowling alleys, and others that serve alcohol or food consider to be their competition.
The law as passed by voters on Nov. 7 prohibits smoking in workplaces and any other indoor public place with few exceptions. To quality for an exemption, a private club would have to be a non-profit organization, could have no employees, could have no nonmembers or anyone under age 18 present, and be located in a stand-alone structure from which smoke could not move to another smoke-free area.
The rules, however, added a sentence stating that an organization member is not an "employee" in the eyes of the ban. This would be true even if the member is a paid worker.
The Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review is expected to consider this and other smoking-ban rules at a Statehouse hearing Monday. If the committee does not object, the rules could take effect at the end of the month and the state could begin actively enforcing the law.
The private club exemption has the support of Gov. Ted Strickland but is opposed by the American Cancer Society and other organizations that pushed Issue 5 last fall.
Although the private club is extremely narrow in the law, some voters have said they were confused by language that appeared on the ballot that simply listed private clubs among the few exemptions with no qualifying language. |
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ILss
Toker
Joined: Dec 06, 2006
Posts: 91
Location: Ohio
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