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Politics

Orange County Smoking Ban Up For Vote

WUNC | By Gurnal Scott
Published November 19, 2012 at 4:40 PM EST
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Orange County's board of commissioners will discuss a county-wide ban on smoking in public places at its meeting tomorrow. The county's Board of Health voted last month to recommend that smoking be prohibited in areas beyond restaurants and bars. Pam Diggs with the Orange County Health Department says those areas would include places where people congregate for work, transit and recreation.

Pam Diggs: "The courthouse, health department grounds, sidewalks, bus stops..those type areas. It would also cover indoor spaces that are privately owned such as child-care facilities, shopping malls, retail stores and lobby and common areas within apartment buildings."

If commissioners vote to support the ban, an educational period without police enforcement will begin January 1st. Full enforcement -- including a 25-dollar fine -- would begin July 1st. Durham County has a similar ban in place.

PoliticsOrange CountySmoking Ban
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Gurnal Scott
Gurnal Scott joined North Carolina Public Radio in March 2012 after several stops in radio and television. After graduating from the College of Charleston in his South Carolina hometown, he began his career in radio there. He started as a sports reporter at News/Talk Radio WTMA and won five Sportscaster of the Year awards. In 1997, Gurnal moved on to television as general assignment reporter and weekend anchor for WCSC-TV in Charleston. He anchored the market's top-rated weekend newscasts until leaving Charleston for Memphis, TN in 2002. Gurnal worked at WPTY-TV for two years before returning to his roots in radio. He joined the staff of Memphis' NewsRadio 600 WREC in 2004 eventually rising to News Director. In 2006, Raleigh news radio station WPTF came calling and he became the station's chief correspondent. Gurnal’s reporting has been honored by the South Carolina Broadcasters Association, the North Carolina Associated Press, and the Radio Television Digital News Association of the Carolinas.
See stories by Gurnal Scott
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