Berkeley Co. to Exempt Tobacco Stores from Indoor Air Rules

The Berkeley County Board of Health this week voted 2-0 to adopt changes to the county’s indoor air regulation to exempt retail tobacco stores from the rules.
Board member George Karos was absent for the meeting on Monday and Ruby Foltz recently resigned from the board. Board chair Joy Buck, who only votes to break a tie, was not present for the meeting either, but authorized county health officer Diana Gaviria to preside in her absence, Berkeley County Health Department administrator Bill Kearns confirmed. Gaviria, according to state code, is to act as the board’s secretary and is a nonvoting member.
The change to the smoking regulations currently affects two existing businesses, Kearns said. Both businesses and any new tobacco store must submit an application and the health department will verify that they comply with the guidelines that now have been adopted, Kearns said.
To be exempt from the clean air regulations, a retail establishment must derive more than 80 percent of its gross revenue from the sale of loose tobacco, cigars and tobacco smoking accessories
According to the ordinance, the definition of a retail tobacco store that was added to the regulation is “a facility that is located in a structure or portion of a structure occupied solely by the business and smoke from the retail tobacco business does not migrate into an enclosed area where smoking is prohibited.”
It also is served by a ventilation system that is separate from the ventilation system that serves smoke-free areas and prohibits the entry of persons under the age of 18, according to the ordinance.
Ed Trout, who has been selling tobacco, cigars and smoking accessories for 17 years in Martinsburg, requested the health department incorporate the exemption in the indoor air regulation.
“I’m very pleased that the Berkeley County health board was able to work with me on this issue,” said Trout, who owns King Street Coffee & Tobacco Emporium.
Trout has said that at least 30 other counties in West Virginia had already adopted such an exemption for retail tobacco businesses.
In 2001, Trout received a exemption specifically for his business shortly after the Board of Health originally adopted its clean air regulations. That exemption, which was recently deemed to be legally questionable, also required that Trout not have any paid employees.
The changes approved Monday do not restrict employment.
Berkeley County Health Department administrator Bill Kearns said the agency only received two comments during the 30-day public comment period that was held about the changes after the board voted to consider the changes in March.

New Legislation Could Limit Smoking Habit in Oklahoma City Restaurants

It seemed most ranchers, oil barons and other folks smoked when some of Oklahoma City’s historic restaurants opened decades ago.

But now, a new law could snuff out smokes in more eating establishments. And the whole idea is lighting up some restaurant owners even though they don’t happen to smoke Virginia cigarettes.


"We’ve probably had one or two legislators who came in, smoked a cigar and probably went down and voted against me,” Jim Shumsky, owner of the ritzy Junior’s, said with a big laugh. "I guess I’ll never know. Maybe I don’t want to know.”

Restaurants with smoking rooms will get a rebate if they close the rooms and go smoke-free, under a bill recently signed into law by Gov. Brad Henry. About 120 Oklahoma restaurants have smoking rooms with separate ventilation systems and would qualify for a rebate of up to 50 percent of the cost of a smoking room, minus depreciation.

It’s unlikely Junior’s or Cattlemen’s Steakhouse will shut down their smoking rooms, said Shumsky and Cattlemen’s owner Dick Stubbs.

"We get a lot of comments from smokers saying thank you for having a place for them,” Stubbs said. "The motivation remains the same. We want to take care of all our customers.”

He said probably fewer than 10 patrons have objected to the smoking room. Both restaurateurs said patron satisfaction is key and the rebate is small compared to the smoking room investment of about $40,000 for the 100-year-old Cattlemen’s and nearly $200,000 for Junior’s.
Restaurant rebates will come from the tobacco settlement fund, which totals about $1.3 million yearly. That should more than cover one-time reimbursement costs for restaurants to go smokeless by 2013, said Mark Newman, Office of State and Federal Policy director. He said there is no cap but restaurants will have to document costs of ventilation and closing off smoking rooms.

"We think this is an important thing to do to get to smoke-free restaurants across the state,” he said.

How many restaurants will close their smoking rooms is hazy but some probably will, declared Jim Hopper, Oklahoma Restaurant Association president.

Concerns about second-hand smoke and heart disease, cancer, strokes, high blood pressure and other health factors prompted the latest smoke-free measure, said Rep. Kris Steele, author of the new rebate law.

Second-hand smoke is estimated to cause 700 non-smokers’ deaths yearly in Oklahoma, said Breathe Easy OK.

A study revealed unhealthy to hazardous environments because of smoke particulates present in state restaurants and bars. The Oklahoma Tobacco Research Center, OU Cancer Institute study found:

- Non-smoking restaurants in the state had moderate levels of the dangerous substances in the air.
- Non-smoking dining areas of restaurants with smoking rooms had three times more particulates, or levels termed unhealthy by Environmental Protection Agency standards.
- Smoking rooms in restaurants averaged 1.5 times the EPA hazardous level.
- Bars averaged 2.6 times the EPA hazardous level.

Second-hand smoke claims an estimated 50,000 Americans yearly from heart disease-related illnesses, cancer and sudden infant death syndrome, according to the U.S. Surgeon General’s report.