Smoking Bans in D.C. and N.J.

This week the D.C. Council gave final approval to Washington's smoking ban, which applies to restaurants right away and to bars beginning in January 2007. Hookah bars and any business that gets 10 percent or more of its revenue from tobacco sales (not including cigarette purchased from machines) are exempt. So in the city of Washington, unlike the state, people will still be able to smoke cigars in cigar lounges.

In New Jersey, meanwhile, a smoking ban that has already been passed by the state Senate is likely to win approval from the state Assembly on Monday. The ban does not apply to casino floors, cigar lounges, or tobacconists. Bar owners are upset about the casino exemption. "Essentially," one told A.P., "the smokers are being bribed: If you want to smoke, you have to gamble."