| A total ban on smoking in Calhoun restaurants could be placed in effect after January.
All six counties in the Mid-Ohio Valley Health Departments jurisdiction will get the non-smoking rules.
Restaurants have been allowed to designate smoking and non-smoking areas
Smokers will have to stay away from the entrances to public buildings.
There would also be 15-foot smoke-free zones near doors, vents and windows of public buildings.
Stand-alone bars and video lottery establishments would be exempt from the new regulations.
Gilmer County has a 100% ban which has been in place for several years.
Smokers and restaurant owners who violate the proposed regulations would be subject to criminal penalties in the form of fines.
The courts have ruled that local health departments have enforcement powers.
But smoking bans across West Virginia have some smokers all fired up, and now they're organizing to fight back.
Forces West Virginia was founded by Maryetta Ables, a smoker from Sutton. Forces WV claims to have several hundred members in 22 counties, including Doctor Richard Kerr of Morgantown.
Kerr, who chairs the state's Libertarian party, says nonsmokers don't mind giving up a right they don't exercise.
He contends government has no business telling private property owners how to handle smoking.
West Virginia is ranked among the top six states for adult smoking.
Maryetta Ables says people get sick for many reasons, and it's wrong to single out smoking.
Ables has smoked since she was 13 and says she has no health problems even with a pack-a-day habit.
She says second-hand smoke is being harmful is incorrect.
Health officials say the studies are solid, but Ables dismisses them as junk science with an agenda.
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