Public places in Kentucky could soon be smoke free.
The State House Health and Welfare Committee overwhelmingly passed a bill today that would ban smoking in indoor workplaces and public places.
Now the bill goes to the full House for consideration.
Jacob Glancy owns Jake’s Cigar Bar in Nicholasville. Right now, the bill includes his store and would stop him from allowing his customers to smoke inside.
“The smoking ban would shut down my livelihood,” Glancy said. “It would leave me high and dry without a business and with a loan from the initial start up.”
Glancy also said it’s disheartening that the government is trying to do tell him what he can do with his own business.
Dr. Sylvia Cerel-Suhl said the ban’s purpose isn’t to stop smoking altogether. Instead, it’s to protect non-smokers from the health-hazards of secondhand smoke.
“People said, ‘Is this going to be a slippery slope? Are you going to tell us we can't buy large soft drinks or that we can't buy big hamburgers?’” Cerel-Suhl said. “And I pointed out that you can choose to drink a big soft drink, but that won't affect me.”
Cerel-Suhl said this is a bill just designed to protect non-smokers from smokers – giving them the right to breath clean air.
22 communities in Kentucky, including Fayette County, already have a smoking ban.
If Kentucky passes the smoke free plan, they will join 24 other states that already have a smoking ban in place.
