Because of the smoke-free ban which recently Gov. Brad Henry signed, Oklahoma restaurants built separately ventilated smoking rooms which would be acceptable for a discount price.

The new Clean Air in Restaurants law allows restaurants to compensate 50 percent of the original consumption, minus deterioration costs, if it changes to a smoke-free restaurant by starting with January 2013.

"Secondhand smoke is a dangerous test, especially for children, and the more we can do to limit it, the better for the all inhabitants’ health. This is pro-health, pro-family regulation that everyone can accept and support it," explained Mr. Henry.

Dick Stubbs, the owner of Cattlemen's Steakhouse in Oklahoma City, one of many other 120 restaurants in the state that invested in a separate smoking room after the Legislature was approved, passed a ban on smoking in indoor workplaces starting with 2003. That ban, which remote bars, also established a prohibition for separate smoke rooms.

Mr. Stubbs declared that he spent approximately $40,000 to install a new stroke and air system, electronic filter, and empty fan to furnish for smokers more favorable conditions.

"We put it in firstly to satisfy our clients that smoke, and that can’t quit so easy their bad habit. If I had to choose based on what I've read about it, I would distinctly keep my room," Stubbs added.

The new regulation orders the Health Department to pay for the new program using a fund that includes state tobacco tax income.

Most of restaurants that spent between $30,000 and $40,000 on their smoking rooms would be desirable for a discount of about $5,000 to $10,000, declared Mark Neuman, the department's director of state and federal policy.

Chickasaw Nation Gov. Bill Anaotubby, who accompanied the bill signing, also reported that his tribe is working to enforce stricter smoke-free legislations at tribe-owned restaurants and event centers. However, he declared that he doesn't suppose to be any of the tribe's casinos to remove smoking completely.

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