Tim Main worked Monday tossing out beer bottles and beer-soaked cigarette butts from a lounge in the Mississippi River city of Alton. To Main, there was ample room in the trash bin for something else -- the statewide smoking ban Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed into law that same day.
A nonsmoker, Main said the new smoking ban oversteps on folks like his wife, a smoker whose habit doesn't bother him in the least.
"I feel like it's the Nazi regime coming in here, talking away all of our rights. It should be a smoker's business" when and where he or she lights up, said Main, who cleans Mike's Ten-Pin Lounge. "First they make it so you have to wear seat belts, and now they want to put a stop to smoking. What's next?"
The new law, which goes into effect Jan. 1, means smokers will have to take their cigarettes outside because the new Smoke-Free Illinois Act bans smoking in public places -- including bars, restaurants and workplaces. Illinois is one of 19 states with a comprehensive smoking ban, according to the state.
The new law trumps local ordinances that are weaker, including those that allowed smoking bans to be phased in later or exempted businesses with air filtration systems. More than 40 communities, including Chicago, have approved restrictions on smoking in public places and a local ordinance must be as strong, or stronger, than the state ban to remain in place, said Illinois Department of Public Health spokeswoman Melaney Arnold.
"This law will save lives," said Blagojevich, who was joined by lawmakers and antismoking advocates at the bill-signing at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago.
Still, bar owner Dennis McCarthy is concerned the ban will kill business. McCarthy owns Rossi's, a small, smoky watering hole off a downtown Chicago alley, and he estimates that 70 percent of his customers smoke.
"If people don't like the atmosphere in my bar they can go somewhere else. That's what life is all about," he said.
Under the law, people still will be allowed to smoke in their homes, cars, at retail tobacco shops, in certain hotel or motel rooms and outdoors.
"It looks like I'll be spending a lot of time outside," Chicago carpenter Rob Nelson said.
Smokers who violate the law could be fined between $100 and $250. And businesses that repeatedly violate the law could be fined at least $2,500.
Associated Press writer Jim Suhr contributed to this report.
