A controversial no-smoking ordinance will make a repeat appearance at Wednesday’s Summerville Town Council meeting with no substantial changes from how it was written in May.

Councilman Mike Dawson said Monday he intends to bring the ordinance up again. He wasn’t willing to make changes to the original text, he said.

“I think it’s an all-or-nothing thing. … Either all employees are worthy of being protected or – forget about it,” he said.

The ordinance prohibits smoking in “enclosed workplaces,” which include retail stores, restaurants, bars, private clubs, pool halls and bowling alleys.

There are exceptions for private homes, existing cigar bars, designated smoking rooms in hotels, retail tobacco stores, stage performances, medical research and religious ceremonies.

Dawson said he’s spent time talking to other council members and educating them about the ordinance and hopes it will be more successful this time.

Council tabled the ordinance in the spring after a public hearing in which almost two dozen people spoke both in favor and in opposition.

Those against said the ordinance infringed upon their freedoms and that restaurant and bar patrons would simply go to businesses outside the town limits where they could still smoke.

Those in favor said workers have a right to a smoke-free work environment and to avoid the negative effects of second-hand smoke.

Dawson said it’s time for Summerville to take action. According to the South Carolina Tobacco Collaborative, more than 30 cities and five counties have enacted smoke-free workplace ordinances. Locally, the cities of Charleston, Edisto Beach, Hollywood, Isle of Palms, Mt. Pleasant, Ravenel, Sullivan’s Island and Walterboro have no-smoking ordinances, according to the collaborative.

Councilman Aaron Brown, a former smoker, said his main concern was providing smoking cessation programs to town employees if they were being discouraged from smoking.  

Smoking is already forbidden in public buildings under state law, Dawson said, so town employees should see no day-to-day change.

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