Governor signs statewide smoking ban

Publication Date: 2007-07-24

• Author:David Mendell and James Kimberly
• Publication:Chicago Tribune

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.