One Florida City's Aim for a Smoke-free Environment is Rejected

Residents, and especially city workers of Brooksville, Florida, who enjoy smoking can breath a sigh of relief, as a proposed smoking ban was rejected in April. Brooksville, a small town on the west coast of Florida situated in Hernando County, came close to approving a smoking ban that could have not only threatened the recreational smoking of its city workers, but more importantly their jobs.

The proposed smoking ban, called the Tobacco Free Workplace policy, was aimed at Brooksville city workers. Under the policy, city workers would not be allowed to smoke at all. Current city employees would have had 12 months to quit their smoking ways or face termination. In fact, it even suggested that those applying for city jobs should be rejected if they had admitted to a smoking lifestyle. City employees would be banned from using tobacco within any areas owned by the city of Brooksville. Even further, city employees would not have been allowed to smoke in their own cars, and people visiting any of the city's properties or parking lots would be prohibited from smoking in their personal vehicles too.

While the proposal was rejected, there still remains a slight possibility that it could be put to the test in front of Brooksville's city council in the future, as even the city's mayor thought it was a good idea.

One would have to ask, how would they enforce these overbearing changes? Would there be people employed to monitor parking lots and watch city workers to ensure they do not smoke? Is it really worth the extra costs and effort to enforce such a policy? Sure, you can make rules that prohibit smoking on certain premises, but saying that someone should not be able to smoke, even on their own time, is a bit excessive. Regardless, the rejection of the Tobacco Free Workplace policy in Brooksville is a small victory for smokers' rights.

Stay tuned for part 2 of Smoking News for May, as there is plenty more going on in the smoking industry in terms of new laws, taxes, and other news.