GOVERNOR SIGNS STATEWIDE SMOKING BAN
Smokers throughout Illinois soon will have to step outside or
into a private setting to light up after Gov. Rod Blagojevich on
Monday signed into law a smoking ban that extends to nearly all
public places across the state.
The governor's action, which state health officials said makes
Illinois the 19th state with a broad smoking ban, culminated
nearly two decades of intense efforts by anti-smoking advocates
to curtail smoking in public.
The law will take effect on Jan. 1, stitching together a
patchwork of local smoking bans passed mostly in the Chicago
area in recent years.
