The smoking ban in Virginia goes into affect today! I included a list below of the exemptions from the new law, it is very specific. Any restaurant that will still allow smoking will have to have a completely separate room with a separate air circulation system to be able to allow smoking. It looks like almost all restaurants in Charlottesville will be non-smoking! Click here to read the full list of the provisions and exemptions under the new law.
- Any place or operation that prepares or stores food for distribution to persons of the same business operation or of a related business operation for service to the public. Examples include operations that prepare food for catering services, pushcart operations, hotdog stands or other mobile points of service.
- Any outdoor area of a restaurant, with or without a roof covering, provided the outdoor area is not enclosed by temporary enclosures.
- Any restaurant located on the premises of any manufacturer of tobacco products.
- Any portion of a restaurant that is constructed in a manner that the area where smoking is permitted is (i) structurally separated from the non-smoking areas of the restaurant and (ii) separately vented to prevent the recirculation of air from the smoking area to the non-smoking area. At least one public entrance must be into an area where smoking is not permitted.
- Any portion of a restaurant that is used exclusively for private functions provided the functions are limited to those areas that are structurally separate and vented separately as described above.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
thrilled about this!
Don’t bother wasting money on patios or separate ventilation zones. Tobacco control will be back for the patios later. Page seven of the tobacco control handbook instructions are to ban patio smoking AFTER business owners spent thousands of dollars to build them for their smoking customers. This clearly shows that these people have ABSOLUTLY NO CONCERN for local businesses. It’s the “inside-out” provision on page seven. Once these people find gullible lawmakers and get a foot in the door, there’s no stopping them. You will see them walk past clearly posted “smoking allowed” signs only to holler and scream and disrupt an otherwise peaceful gathereing of smoking friends. You may need to CTRL and scroll to read their handbook.
http://www.no-smoke.org/pdf/CIA_Fundamentals.pdf
Notice that there’s no mention of patios in the model “smoking ban for dummies” on page eight. They didn’t want that to be seen when the bans were first brought up.http://www.no-smoke.org/document.php?id=229
Thanks for the feedback, Bob. I had no idea it was so specific.