Bellingham, WASH. – The five-year anniversary of the statewide banning of smoking in public building is December 8th, said the Washington State Department of Health Website. In the years since the implementation of the law it seems that one aspect of it has been all but been forgotten. Part of the law is that it is illegal to smoke within 25 ft. of door and windows of any establishment. Apparently, six inches is close enough.
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| Two patrons of the Waterfront Seafood and Bar smoke cigarettes Saturday night. “Smoking is prohibited within a presumptively reasonable minimum distance of twenty-five feet from entrances, exits, windows that open, and ventilation intakes,” states the law enforcing the 25 ft. rule.  Casey Schmidt, 26, lights a cigarette outside of the Beaver Inn Saturday night. Schmidt says he has never had an issue with smoking right outside of any bar in Washington. “It isn’t an issue anymore,” he said. “If you move 25 ft. you are just going to be in front of another business.”  Bar goers smoke outside their chosen establishment on State Street in Bellingham light up within a few feet of the front door. Chantelle Garcia, 23, said smoking outside bars at night isn’t the issue. “I feel it is more in front of cafes and coffee shops,” she said in regards to how it is a problem. People who are going in and out or near bars accept people are going to smoke around them, she said. It is families walking with the children during that day when there is an issue, Garcia said.  Brandon Gray, a cook at the Horseshoe had just got off of work when he fired his lighter at the end of a fresh cig. The 25 ft. rule has never bothered him, he said. “I am defiant by nature,” Gray said. “I have heard of people being cited for it, when the law was new.”  “Owners, or in the case of a leased or rented space the lessee or other person in charge of public places and places of employment and shall post signs prohibiting smoking as appropriate,” states the Washington State law prohibiting smoking in and around public places. Chantelle Garcia had a smoke with a few friends outside the Beaver Inn Tuesday night. “At my work we have to go across the parking lot to smoke,” said Garcia, 23. “We didn’t bother customers about where they smoked”  Several people walked away from the entrance of The Royal Tuesday night to enjoy a cigarette. Blake Hagen, 35, a bar tender at the Royal said employees or police don’t enforce the 25 ft. rule very heavily. “It isn’t profitable to make people move away from the building to smoke,” Hagen said. “People outside the bar are usually there to smoke, so why not let them?” he said as he puffed on a smoke outside the door of the Royal. The first six months that the law was established police would come by and cite people who were not far enough away, he said, after that it has not been an issue with anyone. |
The idea behind the regulation is to help prevent people from coming in contact with second hand smoke. If something such as a law is to succeed there needs to be enforcement. It is a matter of profit versus politics, and there is always the same winner.
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| Proof Sheet. |
