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PTC eases no-smoking rules to allow indoor
smoke room

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com

Peachtree City businesses who go to the lengths of building a separately-ventilated indoor room for smokers can allow their smokers to puff away, under an amendment to the city’s indoor smoking ordinance approved Thursday night.

The proposed restrictions for smoking rooms largely come from the International Mechanical Code used by the city. The smoking rooms must exhaust all air to the outside of the building, be fully enclosed and have a negative air pressure so no smoke can drift from the room.

The city will also require a certified test and balance report of the air flow for the smoking room. Each smoking room also requires an inspection by the city’s building official before it can be used.

The changes came about after a complaint from Alcan Packaging, a company in the city’s industrial park which built a smoking room for its employees last year, before council passed the indoor smoking ban. Alcan produces packaging for tobacco, food, cosmetic and pharmaceutical products.

The ban forbids smoking in workplaces and other public gathering areas.

Alcan’s general manager petitioned council for the change at the previous city council meeting. He said it cost more than $100,000 to build the smoking room.