FARMINGTON — The message from county residents during a public hearing Tuesday was obvious to Davis County Health Department director Lewis Garrett: Most residents likely favor a ban on smoking outdoors.

In a hearing where county employees and reporters outnumbered members of the public, three people spoke in favor of the proposed rule. Only one of the people who spoke, Wayne Russell of Layton, was not affiliated with the county's health department.

Russell, 76, said he supports the proposed rule, although he understands that people have a right to smoke.

"Their freedom stops where my nose begins," he said.

The proposed rule prohibits smoking at parks, playgrounds, recreational areas, most parts of golf courses, fairgrounds, amusement parks, cemeteries and outdoor eating areas. Golf course fairways would be exempt from the ban.

The Davis County Board of Health is expected to vote on the rule during a June 12 meeting in Farmington.

The proposed rule allows business owners to apply for a permit from the health department to create a designated smoking area within an outdoor public place. But the area must be clearly marked as a smoking area and must be at least 25 feet away from an outdoor place where people gather, in order to minimize secondhand smoke exposure.

The rule would be enforceable by any code-enforcement or peace officer and would make any violation a class B misdemeanor, with a recommended $25 fine for the first offense.

Delane McGarvey, the county's Environmental Health Services Division director, applauded the proposed rule. He pointed to a survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that states smoking is on the decline in American homes.

In 1997, 70 percent of Utahns didn't allow smoking in their homes, and the median percentage for the nation was 43 percent. As of 2003, 89 percent of Utahns didn't allow smoking in their homes, and the median percentage for the rest of the country was 70 percent, the report states.

"People do not allow smoking in their homes, and when they take their family to a public place, they carry that rule with them," McGarvey said.

South Weber Mayor Joe Gertge, who sits on the board of health and conducted the public hearing, also spoke in favor of the rule, saying his father died of emphysema and his brother has undergone radiation treatments for lung cancer.

Gertge said that as a father and coach in his city's recreation programs, he sees other coaches who smoke and he's concerned children on sports teams may follow those examples.

A copy of the regulation is available online at www.daviscountyutah.gov/health and at the health department, located at 50 E. State in Farmington. Written comments concerning the regulation will be included in the record if received at the department office before 5 p.m. Tuesday.

If passed, the rule would take effect Jan. 1, 2008, and "no smoking" signs would have to be posted in every outdoor public place by Jan. 1, 2009.

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E-mail: jdougherty@desnews.com