St Louis airport to ban all smoking, controversy

The St. Louis Dispatch via USA Today reports on the controversy versus the city and the county over how the 2011 smoking ban will affect Lambert-St. Louis International Airport.

Mayor Francis Slay's smoking ban for the entire city of St. Louis will take effect on January 2011; and this will extend to the airport's smoking lounges (picture right).

Slay noted [on his blog] that the airport is a "political hybrid," in that it is in St. Louis County but owned by the city. But the decision on smoking, Slay said on his blog, belongs to the city, "as owner of the facility."

St. Louis County counselor Patricia Redington said the smoking lounge exemption is clear in the county ordinance.

But, she added, "If the city hands out citations to smokers in the lounge, the city's authority to do so will be an issue between the city and the people who are charged and will not be the county's concern."

Read the full story: A smoke-free St. Louis airport may pit city against county

Photo of Lambert Intl smoking lounge from Bridge and Tunnel club website