The smoking ban that starts Oct. 1 isn&8217;t just for bars, it is for all indoor workplaces.

There will be no smoke rooms, no break rooms for smokers, no special accommodations. Smokers will have to outdoors to pollute their lungs and the lungs of the people standing near them.

In other words, if you smoke and you work indoors, too bad for you. Winter will be amusing for the nonsmokers.

If you smoke and work outdoors, you get to continue your bad habit. That is, if their workplace allows you to smoke on the property.

There are a few exceptions to the law about which you might not know. Here they are:

– People with caregivers who come to their home can smoke when caregivers aren&8217;t present.

– Old folks can smoke in designated, enclosed rooms at nursing homes, if their nursing home has one.

– Truckers are allowed to smoke in the cab, if the company allows it.

– Actors can smoke on stage during performances, but the tickets have to let audiences know.

– Bars and restaurants can have outdoor patios where smoking is allowed.

– Hotels can have sleeping rooms where smoking is allowed.

– The interior of some work vehicles is considered outside, such as a skidloader, so smoking is allowed if the vehicle is outdoors.

– Family farms pretty much can have smoking indoors and inside vehicles.

– Old soldiers can puff all they want at the Disabled Veterans Rest Camp in Washington County.

– People who work alone at home still can smoke.

– Tobacco shops can let people to sample their products in the shops.

– People can smoke pipes indoors during traditional American Indian

ceremonies.

– Certain psychiatric patients can smoke indoors in locked units.

– Researchers can smoke indoors for peer-reviewed studies of the health affects of smoking.

Of course, smokers still can smoke the filthy things in their homes, in their cars and in outdoor public places such as sidewalks.

The best part for everyone else &8212; the majority of people &8212; is they will now have more places to go. This is good news for dining families. They can take their kids out.

Waiters, waitresses, bartenders and other staff can rejoice about not having to breathe secondhand carcinogens.

Best of all, lots of smokers will see Oct. 1 as an opportunity to quit. They should visit Quitplan.com.