Everyone across Minnesota is now used to restaurants and other public buildings being smoke free.
However, the newest trend is now to start outlawing smoking outside of buildings.
On January 1st, Renville County will be doing just that by eliminating the use of tobacco products from many of its grounds.
The statewide smoking ban went into effect several years ago, eliminating smoking from all indoor public facilities in Minnesota.
Now, some counties are taking it one step further.
Renville County has decided to ban the use of all tobacco products on county grounds with the exclusion of county parks, trails, and fairgrounds.
Michelle Breidenbach of the Renville County Public Health Services says, "We wanted to improve the health of all of our employees here in Renville County. One way of doing that was the tobacco free policy for our grounds."
The ban is aimed at promoting the health of Renville County employees.
But the policy set to take place on the first of the year will still affect everyone.
The elimination of tobacco from the grounds of the Renville County Government Center and the near by Renville County Court House, both in Olivia, will have the most far reaching affect on employees and the rest of the public.
Gail Miller says, "The time was right. We had the consultants helping us draft policy. We went into it and we did presentations with the commissioners to talk to them just about the facts."
The doorways of Renville County buildings were similar to many other buildings... people would generally use the area to smoke.
That will no longer be allowed, which will make smoking very inconvenient... and that is exactly the hope.
Gail Miller of the Renville County Wellness Worksite Team says, "It has such a huge impact when you really look at the statistics and how much productivity you lose from your employees when they are out smoking, the insurance costs, and it's good for employees if we can help them quit smoking or reduce their smoking. It helps their livability."
Even though tobacco use will now be more inconvenient than ever for employees, the county will offer help to those who want to quit.
Renville County is joining Lyon, McLeod, Hennepin Counties in this effort which is all about promoting health.
