Virginia authorities said 13 people were charged with violating the state’s restaurant smoking ban during a weekend crackdown in the Falls Church area of Northern Virginia. Responding to months of complaints, police charged nine smokers with lighting up in several Vietnamese restaurants in Eden Center.
Four more people were charged with allowing smoking Kent cigs in their establishments.
Falls Church officials said those arrested were issued citations and fines.
Indoor Smoking Ban
They are first known citations since the state limited smoking in restaurants. Violators can face $25 fines.
Gary Hagy, director of the Virginia Department of Health’s division of food and environment services, said yesterday that he is aware of no other citations issued for violations of the restaurant smoking law in Virginia.
Spokesmen for the Richmond, Chesterfield County and Henrico County police departments said yesterday that those departments have not issued any citations.
The law, which took effect Dec. 1, generally prohibits smoking in restaurants but allows certain exceptions. For example, restaurants may allow smoking indoors only if they have separately enclosed and vented smoking and nonsmoking rooms with a public entrance into the nonsmoking area.
Hagy said about 92 percent of full-service and fast-food restaurants in the state have indicated that they are nonsmoking since the law took effect.
Since Dec. 1, health inspectors have visited more than 23,000 restaurants, and 97 percent of them have been in compliance with the law, Hagy said.
“Several months ago, we issued a policy . . . to our people that restaurants should know the law by now,” he said. “If they have one that has not complied, then they [local health officials] should report that information to their local law enforcement.”
