Hub Tobacco Limits Clear Hurdle

By O’RYAN JOHNSON

The Boston Public Health Commission is proposing an attack on tobacco that includes banning the sale of cigarettes at drugstores and on campuses, snuffing out smoking on patios and loading docks, and eventually putting an end to puffing in hookah bars and cigar shops.

The measure has many steps left before it is approved, but it passed unanimously at the commission’s meeting yesterday. The public now has 60 days to weigh in, by calling, e-mailing or writing the board.

Board of Health spokeswoman Ann Scales said some members feel the citywide workplace-smoking ban that went into effect in 2002 has too many loopholes that are exploited, such as allowing people to smoke on loading docks and restaurant patios, which she said still exposes some workers to secondhand smoke.

“It’s a policy-making board whose task is to create policy that will protect folks from obvious harm,” Scales said, noting that smokers contract preventable, fatal illnesses. “It’s clear we need to do something.”

That includes phasing out indoor smoking at upscale cigar bars as well as eliminating trendy hookah bars. It would also ban the sale of blunt wrappers that are often used to roll marijuana cigarettes, while sharply increasing fines for stores who sell tobacco to minors.

– ojohnson@bostonherald.com

Originally published by By O’RYAN JOHNSON.

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