County approves smoking ban
The Ingham County Board of Commissioners voted 11-2 to pass a proposal to ban smoking in most county businesses. The proposed regulation requires all smoking facilities to have a separate room, ventilated to the outside.The measure excludes bars, bingo halls and restaurants. “I don’t think in the workplace someone who has to work, go home and feed their families should have to put up with (secondhand) smoke,” said County Commissioner Curtis Hertel, who favored the measure. County Commissioner Mike Severino, who voted against the proposal, agreed with Hertel, but said there were other smoking issues with higher priority, such as the prohibiting smoking on all county-owned property. “We should get our house in order before we ask the private sector to do the same,” he said. Many county businesses already maintain a nonsmoking policy on their premises, but the few that would need a conversion, the proposal may prove pricey, said Philip Thorez, an auto-parts factory owner in Stockbridge who worried his employees would look for work outside the county. “I have enough trouble attracting new people, let alone telling them you can’t smoke in this store,” he said. Vice Chairman Pro Tem Tom Minter said that the proposal’s requirements would not overwhelmingly harm businesses. “At the Breslin Center, probably 3,000 of the attendants are smokers… and you don’t see the attendance drop by 3,000,” he said.