Most Utah fraternal orders get 8 more months of smoking

They're still lighting up at Utah's fraternal orders, for another eight months at least.

The organizations are not among the businesses that were required to go smoke-free Monday under a complicated update to the Utah Indoor Clean Air Act passed by lawmakers earlier this year.

Impacted in the first phase of the law's implementation are day-care providers; private schools; all workplaces, even those without public access; facilities rented for private functions; and some social, fraternal and religious organizations.

Most fraternal clubs, however, have a class B private club license and won't be affected by the new law until Jan. 1, 2007. Also on that date, country clubs and fine-dining establishments with private club licenses must also go smoke-free. Smoking will continue to be allowed in true private clubs that make less than 50 percent of their profits on food until January 2009.

The law is confusing, but state health directors and business owners are doing their best to make the new rules clear.

"Our membership is pretty aware that we're not affected until January," said Jim Sparks, secretary of the Fraternal Order of Eagles in Ogden.

When the time does come, Sparks isn't sure how it will impact business. Many of the Eagles' some 2,000 members don't smoke, but those who do are not happy with the new law.

"I know there's the old hardliners that say, 'Hey, we're not ever going to come back if we can't smoke,' " Sparks said, noting that he still doesn't foresee "any big, major impact on us."

At the Elks Lodge in Murray, members who smoke will simply have to go outside to light up, said president Steven Brown.

"I don't see what the problem is," Brown said. "I smoke, too, so if I can go out, they can go out."

The Utah Department of Health is working with local health departments to educate different organizations about their responsibilities under the new law, said Lena Dibble, media coordinator for the department's Tobacco Prevention and Control Program.

For now, she said, the focus will be on education. "We're not looking for people to penalize."

For more information, visit the Utah Department of Health's Web site at www.tobaccofreeutah.org.

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E-mail: awelling@desnews.com