Brock Vergakis - The Associated Press | Posted: Tuesday, December 30, 2008 11:00 pm
SALT LAKE CITY -- Smoking in Utah's bars will be outlawed at midnight as thousands of revelers celebrate the new year with their last drags on a cigarette or their first breaths of smoke-free air in a private club.
The measure is intended to protect bar employees and customers from second-hand smoke, which can cause cancer.
Lawmakers passed a law banning smoking in private clubs and taverns in 2006, but it only applied to newly licensed clubs.
At midnight, all bars must go smoke-free. Similar bans have been in effect in New York, California and in other states and countries for years.
Under the new law, anyone caught smoking in a bar could face a $100 fine for the first offense and up to a $500 fine for a second offense. The state health department says bars can also be fined up to $5,000 for allowing smoking.
However, David Neville, spokesman for the Utah Department of Health's tobacco prevention and control program, says police won't be wandering around bars looking to issue a ticket to anyone who continues to light up.
"Cops aren't going to be out looking for people. It's not like a parking ticket where if you're on the wrong side of the street, you'll get a ticket," he said. "People generally like to keep the law. ... Utahns can be trusted not to smoke."
Some bar owners say the ban will hurt business and are continuing to fight it.
Bob Brown, owner of the downtown bar Cheers To You, says he anticipates losing up to 30 percent of his business when the smoking ban takes effect.
He said that's because customers will be forced to leave his bar to smoke outside, so instead of having three drinks while a customer talks to friends, now they'll only order two.
"The reality is, I'm not a smoker. I hate cigarette smoke. I don't go into my own private club because it's smoky. This is not a health issue at all for me. This is a business issue," Brown said.
On Tuesday, Brown's attorney sought a declaratory judgment from the health department excluding cigarettes from the state's definition of tobacco products. In the filing, Brown's attorney contends that the Indoor Clean Air Act doesn't apply to cigarettes because in part of the state's code, cigarettes are explicitly excluded from being defined as a 'tobacco product.'
"The Utah Legislature has distinguished between tobacco products and cigarettes for many years. It deliberately declined to ban the smoking of cigarettes in private clubs," attorney Trent Waddoups wrote.
There's little question that lawmakers intended to ban cigarette smoking. The issue was one of the most hotly debated topics in the Legislature in 2006.
"I feel confident that their intent was to stop the smoking of cigarettes, which is why I was so surprised when I finally read it for myself," Brown said.
However, where Brown sees a loophole, the health department sees a closed door.
"The express declaration in the Utah Indoor Clean Air Act to regulate tobacco products in any form controls and includes cigarettes," David Sundwall, executive director of the health department, wrote in his declaratory order.