At its meeting this week, the Dayton City Council passed a comprehensive ordinance that will ban smoking in all public places within city limits. It passed with a 3-2 vote and applies to all places of employment, whether indoors or outdoors.
While there are no cigar bars or lounges in Dayton, a report by Local12.com indicates that there “a handful” of businesses, primarily bars, that currently allow smoking. The only exemptions in the ban are for private clubs.
In the ordinance the council wrote that it believes “that this ordinance is needed to protect the public health and welfare by prohibiting smoking in public places and places of employment, guarantee the right of all residents and visitors to breathe smoke-free air, and recognize that the need to breathe smoke-free air shall have priority and override the desire to smoke in all places of employment and public places in the City of Dayton.”
The ban goes into effect 60 days after its passage, which would be Nov. 5.
Dayton is located less approximately three miles northeast of Cincinnati, and is home to approximately 5,600 residents.