Some business owners are finding it difficult to enforce the smoke-free workplace law.
No local businesses have been fined yet for noncompliance, but many are still unsure of how to enforce the state regulation, particularly the 10-foot rule that prohibits smoking and ash trays within 10 feet of a public entrance.
“It’s virtually impossible” to enforce, said Todd Miller, owner of Life of Riley Tavern in the Pearl District. “We remind people … but most people want to put their cigarette out right next to the door” after smoking their cigarette outside on the sidewalk, he said…
Miller said he quit smoking more than 12 years ago and personally likes the Jan. 1 expansion of the 2002 smokefree workplace law, which extended to bars, bowling alleys and bingo halls. The 10-foot rule was also added to minimize people’s exposure to secondhand smoke as they walk in and out of public buildings.
Read the full story at the Portland Tribune.
