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No more smoking on Travis Co. property
Also bans the use of e-cigarettes
Updated: Wednesday, 30 Jan 2013, 6:53 AM CST
Published : Tuesday, 29 Jan 2013, 6:45 PM CST
AUSTIN (KXAN) - Travis County commissioners unanimously voted Tuesday to ban the use of tobacco on all county properties.
It's just the latest decision in a push to place limits on where you can smoke in and around Austin.
As defense attorney Adam Reposa lit up a cigarette outside the County Courthouse Tuesday, he was fired up.
That's because a smoking ban will put some new rules in place when it comes to his daily smoke break.
"If a person wants to hurt themselves, it's not the place of the sovereign to step in," said Reposa.
The ban, which will take effect on April 7, also bans the use of electronic cigarettes.
Smoke-free campuses are a growing trend in Austin.
"Samsung went entirely 100 percent tobacco free as of Jan. 1," said Dr. Phil Huang, with the Austin-Travis County Health and Human Services Department. "National Instruments went in September of last year, and Dell has been that way for several years."
Rebecca Foster is a county employee and said she supports the new measure.
"A lot of people, when they go outside to do a smoke, they'll do it right next to the entrances of places so people have to walk by it anyway to get inside the building," said Foster.
Right now, there are already designated smoking areas in places 15 feet away from entrances, but the new ban will eliminate smoking on county property all together.
"Not smoking would benefit people," said Reposa. "However, the decision of who is the arbiter of what benefits people and what doesn't -- I hate to leave that in the hands of government."
The County's Health Department estimates that 15- to 17 percent of all Travis County adults are smokers and that 70 percent of all smokers have tried to quit. The county is hoping this new ban will be a push in the right direction.
To implement the new ban, the county will install signs around buildings as well as pass out literature to its employees.
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