Ohio’s Anti-Smoking Law Unlikely to Be Enforced on Truckers
Owner-Operators, Out-of-Staters Exempt, State Official Says
nforcement against on-the-job truckers who violate Ohio’s new smoking ban that took effect Thursday morning is expected to be lax, but trucking industry officials said the law should be changed to exempt drivers, the Columbus Dispatch reported.
While Ohio-based truckers must comply with the new law and, for the time being, forbid drivers to smoke in cabs, tractors belonging to carriers headquartered in other states are considered “out-of-state workplaces” and are not subject to the smoking ban, Kristopher Weiss, a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Health, told Transport Topics.
Likewise, independent drivers who own and operate their own trucks will still be permitted to smoke in their cabs, Weiss said.
Truck drivers were surprised that the ban affected their cabs, the Dispatch reported Thursday. But Ohio officials and co-sponsors of the measure said the ban as applied to truck drivers was not likely to be enforced, the paper said.
Health inspectors will enforce the ban based on complaints and it is unlikely that people would report truck drivers smoking in their cabs, the Dispatch reported.
he law requires no-smoking signs to be posted at workplaces, including on truck doors. Ashtrays also must be removed from workplaces, including vehicles, Larry Davis, president of the Ohio Trucking Association, told the Dispatch. The trucking industry will lobby for an exemption from the ban for drivers, Davis said.