Clearing the air: Bars, restaurants resist amid rising trend of smoke-free workplaces. (Health).

Smoke steams out of Roger Egan's ears when he hears about proposals to mandate smoke-free workplaces.

The owner of McDuffy's Sports Bar and the Bash Nightclub in Tempe says it would be wrong and unconstitutional to prohibit customers from smoking in his bar and restaurant.

An ad hoc committee of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors' Board of Health is discussing how to update the Smoking Pollution Control Ordinance that went into effect in 1988. Because the ordinance only applies to unincorporated areas of Maricopa County, the board would only be allowed to mandate that unincorporated areas, such as Sun City and Sun City West, switch to smoke-free work environments.

Only about a dozen cities and counties nationwide prohibit smoking in bars and restaurants. Mesa has banned smoking in restaurants since 1996 and Tucson since 1998.

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