Allegheny County Smoking Ban – Exceptions

Originally Posted on March 21, 2007 Last Updated on April 1, 2007

So I’ve been reading the Codified Smoking Ban with Amendments found at the Office of the Allegheny County Council’s website. The smoking ban, to my knowledge, is still slated to go into effect in early April. [Update: The tentative date has now been put back to sometime this summer.] It was originally to have gone into effect as early as January 2007, but was delayed due to (excellently awesome?) legal reasons.

Basically, anywhere that employees work or the public gathers inside of a closed room (defined as being completely enclosed by walls and a ceiling, other than passageways or doors) is going to be smoke free. Except for the following:

In a specialty tobacco establishment, such as a hookah bar.
Hotels can have 25% of their rooms designated as Smoking Rooms.
In your own home (how nice of them.)
In drinking establishments opened prior to September 26, 2006 (when the law was first put in motion), provided that:

They meet the requirements for a “drinking establishment” (no more than 10% of their revenue comes from food and they have no more than 10 employees, basically).
No one under the age of 18 is in the place.
The establishment gets a “permit” from the county to allow smoking, and displays it prominently.

Also, there’s a clause in there that states that all of those “smoking permits” expire in 2009.

Up Next: You take the long way home...

Discussion

bob b 26 Mar 2007

Smoke ’em if you got ’em!

Reply
Jamie 21 Oct 2008

I manage a pool hall – our food sales are less than 20%, and our full, legal name has the word ‘CLUB’ in it(private club) – yet we were just hit with $1000 fine, and ordered to remove all ashtrays. THANKS A LOT TO WHOEVER REPORTED US! Our business wasn’t suffering enough with this crap economy, now we just lost 85% or our regular customers!

Reply
Ron 24 Nov 2008

I feel that the bans on smoking is a good thing. You shouldn’t be thinking of only yourselves!!! If you want to commit an assisted suicide by smoking, it shouldn’t make you mad for the fact that some others may want their own lives to live without smoking!!! STOP BEING SO SELFISH!!! PIGS!!!!!

Reply
nathan 24 Nov 2008

We hear you, Ron.

The argument against the smoking ban is simple: If people don’t want to breathe in smoke, then don’t go to a smoky bar.

In a capitalist society, the free markets should determine whether or not smoking is allowed in a bar – if a bar owner wants to make his establishment non-smoking then he can do so. Surely, if there were enough non-smokers out there who also wanted bars that were non-smoking, there would be bars popping up all over that willingly banned smoking and still were able to make a profit, right?

In fact, this has happened in many of my favorite bars, where the owners themselves decided that they don’t want to allow smoking. The bar still went on to do great business.

The less we have government getting involved in our daily lives the better.

It does look as though your computer has a problem with its caps lock button, you may want to get that looked into, though. 🙂

And I’m not sure what pigs have to do with any of this…short of Animal Farm, I’m not aware of any smoking pigs out there.

Reply
Ron 30 Nov 2008

That comment about the pigs is funny and they actually do expose pigs to smoke in order to develop cancer in them. They use the lungs in demonstrations for smoking and its results!! And I do understand about the government getting involved, but most bar owners are afraid of losing business if they do limit business to non-smoking customers, so I feel that the government is a way to allow those few bar owners to have their wish come true and the customers can’t hold any grudge against the bar or the owner.

Reply
nathan 9 Dec 2008

I still have to disagree with you, Ron.

Pittsburgh’s Shadyside neighborhood has Ellsworth Street. All but one bar on that street made their restaurants non-smoking before the ban. The only bar left that allows smoking is the least popular place on the street, and I personally know owners of some of the other places and they’ve mentioned absolutely no downturn in business after making the decision.

If a business owner is afraid to take a chance for something they believe in, that is there choice and a decision they have to live up to. If it all comes down to how much money they’re making, then the business isn’t going to be that concerned with their employees health, etc. anyway, correct?

Reply
Carrie hahn 16 May 2015

It’s not tobacco it’s diesel that is causing pulmonary problems and lung cancer. They got you all fooled. This is just about personal tastes and people being annoyed by the existence of other human beings. Perfume is worse for you than any tobacco product. Tobacco contains non carcinogens. that is why they had to fabricate the idea that there are hundreds or thousands of chemicals in tobacco.

Reply
1. nathan 27 May 2015
  
  Not too sure about that Carrie…
  
  Reply