Tagged: smoking ban

The City of Mayfield could possibly ban smoking in public. This comes after a statewide ban failed in the Kentucky House.

Mayor Teresa Cantrell says there’s wide community support for a smoking ban. She says a public survey showed only 2 out of the 70 respondents were against a ban. Cantrell says a smoking ban wouldn’t just benefit a business’s patrons.

Supporters of a statewide smoking ban in Kentucky are once again trying to persuade a House committee to pass the the legislation this session. The House Judiciary Committee is the second committee—after House Health and Welfare—to hear the smoking ban bill sponsored by State Rep. Susan Westrom, a Lexington Democrat.

Legislation that would institute a statewide smoking ban in restaurants and other public places has been sent to the House Judiciary Committee for further review, making it unlikely to pass this legislative session. 

House Speaker Greg Stumbo says he doesn't expect the measure to make it back to the full House for consideration.  The bill has proven divisive in Kentucky, one of the nation's top tobacco-producing states.

Supporters of a statewide smoking ban brought high-profile help from the world of sports while rallying Thursday in the Capitol Rotunda  for their cause.

A new poll shows more than half of Kentuckians interviewed last fall support a state law to ban smoking in indoor public places. The poll from the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky and the Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati finds about 6 out of 10 would support such a ban. That’s up from fewer than half of those polled in 2010.  However, the measure isn’t getting much political support because so much of the region depends on tobacco farming.