Smoking Del. Official Reverses County Smoking Ban

New Castle County's Chief Administrative Officer says reversing the ban should increase worker productivity because they won't have to leave work property to smoke

New Castle County has reversed a ban that prohibited smoking near three office complexes where most of the county's 1,400 employees work.
 
The News Journal of Wilmington reports New Castle County Chief Administrative Officer David Grimaldi, who is three weeks into his new county job and a smoker himself, made the change.

He says the change should increase the productivity of county workers who smoke because they won't have to leave the property to take a smoke break. The county had put the ban in place less than a year ago.

Grimaldi released this statement on Thursday about the smoking policy.

"New Castle County is committed to providing a safe and healthy work place and to promoting the health and well-being of its employees and visitors. New Castle County is merely amending the distance in which employees can smoke at the three government locations. Going forward, employees need to maintain a 25 foot distance from these buildings and be out of public sight."

A state ban on smoking indoors and close to public buildings still applies. The law that banned indoor smoking, Delaware's Clean Indoor Air Act, went into effect ten years ago this month.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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