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Commission will
consider a resolution banning smoking in public places
By JOHN THOMPSON
jthompson@TheCitizenNews.com
The Fayette County Commission will consider a resolution tomorrow that
could end up banning smoking in public places.
Last month, the Fayette County Board of Health created a resolution asking
all of the county's governments to prohibit smoking in public because
of health concerns.
The Board of Health based its resolution on findings that tobacco smoke
is a major force in indoor air pollution and secondhand smoke can lead
to lung cancer.
“No studies have been performed which conclude that breathing secondhand
smokes has no effect to those persons exposed to the secondhand smoke,”
the resolution reads.
The resolution has been presented to the Peachtree City Council and Tyrone
Town Council, but neither governing body acted on the request.
If the county decides to pass the ordinance, it would join DeKalb County
as the only counties in the state banning smoking in public places.
Last December, the DeKalb Board of Commissioners amended a 1992 no-smoking
ordinance to restrict smoking inside all buildings of unincorporated DeKalb
County.
DeKalb's ordinance requires all restaurants to be completely smoke-free.
Bars that gross more than 50 percent of sales from beverages are exempt
from the ordinance, as well as all buildings in incorporated DeKalb, namely
the municipalities of Atlanta in DeKalb, Avondale Estates, Decatur, Doraville,
Chamblee, Clarkston, Lithonia, Pine Lake and Stone Mountain.
Peachtree City already has a limited smoking ordinance that requires business
owners to post sign showing the level of tobacco smoke present in the
building.
The meeting starts at 7 p.m. at the county’s administrative complex
on Stonewall Avenue.
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