Smoke Finally Clears in Tobacco Country

The last government building in the hometown of tobacco giant R.J. Reynolds to allow smoking in its public areas has snuffed the policy.

Starting today, most smokers in the Forsyth County Hall of Justice in Winston-Salem must go to a lounge on the building’s first floor to light up, and employees also can smoke in a break room. Other public buildings in Winston-Salem had previously made such arrangements.

A state law passed in 1993 required any future regulation of smoking in public buildings to reserve at least 20% of the building for smoking unless it was physically impractical. Some local governments have used that exception to enact total smoking bans.