As of January 1, 2009, North Carolina bars and restaurants are smoke free. Several Outer Banks restaurants had been transitioning to being smoke free as news that the ban passed became known. Due to the state's long ties to tobacco, the ban has become national news. Local restaurateur, Mike Kelly of Kellys Restaurant in Nags Head, was quoted in the LA Times about the smoking ban.
NC smoking ban for restaurants, bars signals another shift in state's tobacco history
Associated Press Writer
DURHAM, N.C. (AP) — In dozens of states, Gary Richards wouldn't have
been able to light up a Marlboro before tucking into his meat-lover's
pizza, as he did at Satisfaction Restaurant & Bar this week. But in
North Carolina, the nation's leading tobacco producer, limits on indoor
smoking have lagged behind those in much of the country.
That
changes Saturday, when smoking in restaurants and bars is banned in the
state that is home to two major tobacco companies and where the golden
leaf helped build Duke and Wake Forest universities.
"There's
smokers and there's nonsmokers. We've gotten along in the past,"
Richards, 52, said this week during a pre-meal smoke at the restaurant
inside a former tobacco warehouse. "Why can't I come in here and have
my beer and a couple of slices of pizza and a cigarette?"
The
dangers of secondhand smoke to employee health and complaints from
patrons about the smell finally won out when the Legislature approved
the ban in 2009 after years of failures.
"This law doesn't tell
anybody they shouldn't smoke," said state Rep. Hugh Holliman, a lung
cancer survivor whose sister died of lung cancer. He led the charge for
the legislation. "It's saying nonsmokers should have the same right to
breathe clean air."
North Carolina is a relative latecomer to
tobacco prohibitions in public places. North Carolina is at least the
29th state to ban smoking in restaurants and 24th for bars, according
to the American Lung Association.
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