Old Hickory Inn Refuses to Abide by Louisville's Newest Smoking Ban

At 12:01 a.m. on July 1st Louisville, Kentucky's newest smoking ban will take effect, and bar owners across the city, who have been fighting the ban in court's for months are dreading it. They believe the ban will affect their business and bottom line.

According to a recent MSNBC News article Kentucky holds the distinction of having the highest rate of adult smokers in the nation, at twenty-eight percent, while also leading the nation in lung cancer deaths. Many of the state's lung cancer deaths can also be blamed on the state's coal mining industry, so just how many are directly related to smoking is not known. It is also a state where many of the state's citizens have made their living from the production of tobacco over the years.

As stated in a recent article on about.com the city's newest smoking ban is a revision of the smoking ban that took effect in August of 2005. The smoking ban from 2005 banned smoking in most establishments throughout Louisville, except for those that received less than seventy-five percent of their revenue from food, or those that created separately ventilated rooms. Less than two years after restaurant and bar owners spent a fortune putting in special ventilation systems, that would allow them to be exempt from the smoking ban, another ban has been passed, eliminating the exemptions from the previous ban, and stating the only Louisville business that can allow smoking is Churchill Downs. Leading many business owners to cry foul, and say that city council members are playing favoritism by allowing smoking to continue at Churchill Downs. The local business owners have been fighting the ban in court for months to no avail, and the ban went into effect on July 1st as planned.