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Ohio’s Anti-Smoking Law Unlikely to Be Enforced on TruckersEnforcement against on-the-job truckers who violate Ohio’s new smoking ban that took effect Thursday morning is expected to be lax, but trucking industry officials said the law should be changed to exempt drivers, the Columbus Dispatch reported.
While Ohio-based truckers must comply with the new law and, for the time being, forbid drivers to smoke in cabs, tractors belonging to carriers headquartered in other states are considered “out-of-state workplaces” and are not subject to the smoking ban, Kristopher Weiss, a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Health, told Transport Topics.
Likewise, independent drivers who own and operate their own trucks will still be permitted to smoke in their cabs, Weiss said.
The state’s workplace smoking ban means that most truck drivers no longer can smoke legally behind the wheel, news reports said this week. (Click here for previous coverage.)
Truck drivers were surprised that the ban affected their cabs, the Dispatch reported Thursday. But Ohio officials and co-sponsors of the measure said the ban as applied to truck drivers was not likely to be enforced, the paper said.
Health inspectors will enforce the ban based on complaints and it is unlikely that people would report truck drivers smoking in their cabs, the Dispatch reported.
The law requires no-smoking signs to be posted at workplaces, including on truck doors. Ashtrays also must be removed from workplaces, including vehicles, Larry Davis, president of the Ohio Trucking Association, told the Dispatch. The trucking industry will lobby for an exemption from the ban for drivers, Davis said.
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mhlogistics
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Thats enough to even make a non smoker like myself mad! I can understand a non smoker not wanting smoke in there face while there working but Ohio is just going to far. Looks like Ohio businesses are going to lose alot of Drivers. if I lived there I'd have a for sale sign up on my home right now.
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Tom Cobb
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This is nothing new. Bans on workplace smoking are in place in many cities around the country. A ban on smoking in many public business is also in effect in many states. Businesses have implemented no smoking on their property in many places including no smoking on the property including the parking lots.
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mhlogistics
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I hear you, But no smoking signs on the side of trucks is alittle to much. Don't you think?
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admin
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Ohio Smoking Ban Enforcement DelayedOhio has delayed enforcing its new smoking ban until specific rules and regulations are written, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported.
Meanwhile, the Truck Renting and Leasing Association said in a note to its members Friday that it would work with the Ohio Trucking Association to exempt trucks from the smoking ban "and to ensure that lessors cannot be held liable for any violations committed by customers or customer’s drivers."
The decision was made after settlement talks between the Ohio Attorney General’s office and lawyers for two groups that had filed suits challenging the constitutionality of the new law went into effect shortly after midnight last Thursday the paper said.
The Ohio Department of Health has six months to write rules, but expects to do so sooner, the Enquirer reported.
The trucking industry has been one of the most vocal opponents of the law, which prohibits smoking in truck cabs, though there were exemptions for out-of-state trucks and independent drivers, and enforcement was expected to be lax on trucking
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