PITTSBURGH -- A compromise bill to outlaw smoking in most workplaces and public spaces in Pennsylvania -- albeit with several exemptions -- was signed into law by Gov. Ed Rendell on Friday.
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The statewide ban will take effect in 90 days, making cigarette, cigar and pipe smoking illegal in restaurants, office buildings, schools, sports arenas, theaters, and bus and train stations.

Ashtrays will also get tossed from break rooms, lobbies and hallways.

The fine will be $250 for a first offense, $500 for a second offense and $1,000 the third time.

There are a dozen exemptions in the bill -- which stalled for a year before gaining approval in the House and Senate over the past week -- to ensure that smoking continues at some bars and taverns, private clubs, nursing homes, tobacco shops and portions of casino floors.

One loophole includes bars and private clubs that don't make more than 20 percent of revenue off food. State officials are still trying to determine which bars fall under that category.

Restaurant owners will have to tell longtime diners and barflies to light up outside, or separate the bar from the restaurant. Owners and employees of small businesses from machine shops to law firms who have smoked side by side for years will have to decide whether to change their habits or break the law.

"Smoking" or "No smoking" signs will have to be posted just about everywhere.

"I think customers will try to sneak a cigarette and get away with it," said Paul Rosato, manager of City Grill on Pittsburgh's South Side. "There are just too many bars. I think it may be too hard to enforce."

But Rosato said he knows he'll have the responsibility to make sure his patrons abide by the law.

The state is still scrambling to figure out who will enforce the new ban.

Allegheny County has 25 to 30 inspectors available to help enforce the fines if that's what the state chooses to do. Agencies are expected to respond based on calls for complaints.

Law enforcement officials can enforce the ban, too. But the state might contract inspectors of their own to enforce the fines.

Rendell has advocated a smoking ban as a way to reduce health care costs, although he admits he would have rather put his name on a stronger piece of legislation than the one he signed.

"I was in favor of every jurisdiction having the right to pass a tougher ban," Rendell said Thursday in Greensburg. "We couldn't get that through the Legislature, but we have promises now from some legislators that we can run separate bills at a later time, giving Allegheny County the right to pass a tougher ban."

Some Pittsburgh businesses worry that the ban will hurt their revenues.

"I think the government has no business regulating a legal product," said Marc Adams, who works at Bloom Cigar on the South Side.

"Between the smoking ban and the drink tax, it's just too much for our industry to handle," said Rosato. "It's going to be at least 20, 30 percent (loss of business). Probably higher. My customers who come in, they eat, like to have a cigar or smoke a cigarette."

Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato said any smoking ban is a good start -- and because this ban will take effect statewide, he said it's more fair than the countywide ban that was thrown out in in court earlier this year.

Eat 'N Park restaurants decided to go smoke-free after last year's attempt at a county smoking ban.

"Overall, we did it because it was the right thing to do for our employees, regardless of what the business impacts were," said Kevin O'Connell, senior vice president of marketing for Eat 'N Park. "And we had a tremendous amount of positive feedback, but we also had some people who were upset about it."

Smoke Free Pennsylvania founder Bill Godshall has fought for a ban for two decades.

"Back in 1986 when I started, only 4 percent of workplaces were smoke free," he said. "This will make it about 98 percent in our state."

More than 30 states have approved some type of statewide smoking ban.

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