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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Smoke Free Louisville: A Model for Virginia

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Thursday, March 20, 2008   

Richmond, VA - Just how far should a smoking ban go? Entertainment venues in Kentucky have "cleared the air" with a full ban on smoking, and some believe Virginia should do the same.

Environmental scientist Peter deFur says the Louisville law, which bans smoking in all public places, is far more effective than an earlier version that exempted bars and businesses with ventilated "smoking rooms." He explains a partial ban has almost no impact on indoor air quality, because it does little to reduce the levels of hazardous particulates in tobacco smoke.

"They had done a partial ban, which is akin to what Virginia has now, and they found almost no change in particulate matter; but when they implemented the full ban, the particulate matter plummeted to almost non-detection."

Additional studies in other states also dispute the economic argument that a ban on smoking means a loss of business receipts, deFur says.

"The data indicate that, for every customer who decides they're no longer going to go a bar or restaurant because they cannot smoke, that bar or restaurant gets new customers who now go because there is no smoking."

Opponents of the smoking ban include some business owners and tobacco companies. Their view is that the state should not control the policies of privately-owned businesses. Supporters of a more stringent ban call the argument "nonsense," says deFur, because the state already enforces other types of health and safety laws for restaurants, bars, and workplaces.



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