A proposed smoking ban on Clallam County courthouse property might extend to other county buildings, but not county parks or Olympic Discovery Trail.
County commissioners, meeting Tuesday as the Board of Health, heard county Health and Human Services officials, an Olympic Medical Center board member and county public health advisory board members voice support for the ordinance proposed to reduce nonsmokers’ exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke.
The proposal will be taken up by county commissioners in the next two weeks, and a public hearing on the ban is expected to be called.
“Why are we accommodating a minority that comes to the courthouse?” asked Rachel Anderson, tobacco prevention specialist with county Health and Human Services, to the Board of Health on Tuesday.
Nonsmokers often must walk through walls of smoke puffed by smokers outside the courthouse entrance at 223 E. Fourth St., Port Angeles.