By Murray Evans
The Associated Press

LEXINGTON - The second-largest city in the state, with the nation's highest adult smoking rate, will ban smoking in most public buildings, the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council decided Tuesday.

By an 11-3 vote, the council enacted an ordinance that is the first of its kind in Kentucky. The ordinance, which will be enforced by the county health department, will take effect 90 days from Tuesday, which would be Sept. 29.

While smoking will be banned in most public buildings, the ban does not apply to private dwellings, rooms or halls used for private social functions, retail tobacco stores and tobacco warehouses, indoor smoking areas in government buildings and facilities operated by private organizations.

One member of the 15-member council abstained from the voting. Chuck Ellinger owns a restaurant he says is frequented by employees of tobacco warehouses.

Local health advocates praised the council's decision. Owners of area restaurants and bars have said the ban could hurt business. Councilman Al Mitchell, who voted against the ordinance, has called it "illegal" and an "infringement of business."

Before the final vote, Mitchell proposed an amendment to the ordinance that would exclude so-called "cigar bars" from the ordinance. The amendment failed by a 10-3 vote.

"This is an incredible day for Lexington," said Ellen Hahn, an associate professor in the University of Kentucky's College of Nursing who campaigned for the smoking ban. "To get 11 votes was really incredible. We need to protect our kids and protect our workers and protect our patrons."

Lexington is considered to be the hub of the burley tobacco belt, which has put the town's anti-smoking campaign on the national radar. Scotty Baesler, who was Lexington's mayor from 1982 to 1993 and a U.S. representative from 1993 to 1998, said the vote is "another sign of the lack of influence of tobacco, even in tobacco country," in a state in which he estimates there are 40,000 to 50,000 tobacco farmers, including himself.

"I don't think it could have happened 10 years ago," Baesler said, adding that it "has more to do with changing times than with personalities."

Smoking bans are receiving attention around the country. New York enacted an ordinance 13 weeks ago that banned smoking in bars and restaurants. Two states, California and Delaware, already have passed smoking bans in public places statewide.

It's good that such a trend has spread to Lexington, Hahn said.

"Lexington is just the right place to do it. The majority of people (here) don't smoke," she said. "We obviously support health here. This is the single most important thing Lexington could do for the health of its citizens."

The ban won't affect Kentucky tobacco farmers in the short term, said Danny McKinney, chief executive officer of the Burley Tobacco Growers' Co-op Association in Lexington.

"Growers leave that (debate) to the manufacturing end, or the people who distribute the tobacco products," McKinney said.

"The growers are more occupied with how little quota is available to them right now. They're more concerned with the weather and the marketing of the raw product, rather than the end product.

"If smoking is banned all over the world, sure, it will affect us. But if it's only banned in Lexington, then we see little effect toward us at this time."

Mayor Teresa Ann Isaac, who supported the smoking ban, said she believed the ordinance would stand up to any court challenge.

"You could always get a lawsuit," she said. "What (restaurant industry representatives) asked us to do is not single them out, and we did what they asked us to do."

When the ban takes effect, "there will be, obviously, a better indoor air quality," Isaac said.

"I think that people will respect their neighbors. If somebody is smoking and somebody asks them not to smoke, I think they'll step outside and continue to smoke. I don't think there will be a down side."