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Smokers who smoke in restaurants and bars in Calhoun and the region can carry-on as usual, at least for a while.
The push toward clean air will continue with the recognition of health problems caused by smoking, says Gary Hamilton, the Director of the Mid-Ohio Valley Health Department in Parkersburg.
Hamilton says the region's fourteen member board has yet to embark on creating newer regulations regarding indoor smoking.
Hamilton said the MOVHD was among the first public health agencies in West Virginia to implement clean air rules ten years ago.
Carrie Brainard, a smoking cessation specialist, is the department's educator and "pulse taker" in the six-county area covered by the agency. Hamilton said Brainard is making a major effort to help people understand the risks of smoking and inhaling second-hand smoke.
However, newer no smoking regulations will be coming to restaurants, bars or public places in towns and counties in West Virginia.
The state Supreme Court has unanimously cleared the way for local health boards to ban indoor smoking, validating initiatives already undertaken.
Those "Areas" enjoyed by smokers are becoming a thing of the past in Charleston, Huntington and other localities. .
Eric Duranti, Calhoun Sanitarian, said the "regular rules are still in place" in the Mid-Ohio Valley Health Department's six county region.
"Local restaurants must maintain 75% non-smoking areas," according to Pat Fullmer with the MOVHD in Parkersburg. In this region, all bars are exempt from smoking regulations.
The court's decision was sweeping, declaring that the Legislature gave county health boards the authority to regulate secondhand smoke in most offices and public places.
The justices did not include bingo halls and nursing homes from county health boards' regulations because the Legislature has enacted specific rules allowing those places to decide on smoking.
County health boards lack the power to ban smoking in "a truly and exclusively private office, like one's own home."
Many restaurant and bar owners have complained the new rules will hurt their business.
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