The recommendation will touch all campuses, including Ohio State, one of the nation’s largest universities. It currently bans only indoor smoking.

The Ohio Department of Health has prepared tool kits for universities and colleges to help them implement tobacco-free policies, though the decision will ultimately be up to each institution’s board of trustees.

Bans on the use, advertising and sales of tobacco are increasingly being enacted or considered nationwide, sometimes over the objections of student smokers, staff and faculty.

In a unanimous decision Wednesday, justices rejected claims by a Columbus tavern owner that argued the fines it was charged for violations were an illegal taking of property, violating the state’s legitimate police powers.

Zeno’s Victorian Village had been cited 10 different times between July 2007 and September 2009. The bar argued the smoking ban should have been enforced against smokers, not businesses.

Justices said there was evidence that the bar tacitly allowed smoking and had plastic cups partially filled with water that were placed around the bar as ash trays. They further noted the bar had access to an appeals process and did not take advantage of it eight of 10 times.

Each job opening at the West Side casino has a different skill set and qualification except for one criterion: applicants must be non-smokers.

Bob Tenenbaum speaks for Penn National Gaming which owns the casino as well as one in Toledo expected to open this year. Tenenbaum said the Ohio casinos will be smoke-free.

“It’s also part of Penn National’s employee wellness program which includes on-site workout facilities and other health programs for the employees, and it’s simply an extension of that,” Tenenbaum said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports about 23 percent of Ohio adults smoke.

But The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company in Marysville saw a sharp decline in employees who smoked after it required them to kick the habit and began hiring only non-smokers about five years ago. Spokesperson Jim King said before the policy about one-third of employees lit up. Today, he said, that number is almost nothing.

During the same time Scotts implemented its rule, The Cleveland Clinic also stopped hiring smokers. The hospital, though, offers a free cessation course for potential new hires that test positive for nicotine and lets them re-apply for the job in 90 days.

But if you want to work at the West Side casino it’s best to snuff out the habit before you apply.

“That’s the message, yes…Anybody who’s thinking of applying for a position at Penn National, certainly in Columbus, has plenty of time, if they are a smoker and they want to apply, to quit smoking,” he said.

The company will start the hiring process this summer.

The report from the Gallup-Healthways Well Being Index says 26 percent of Ohioans have smoked cigarettes this year – that ties the state with Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Louisiana, and Oklahoma.

Only Kentucky ranked higher with 29 percent of residents smoking this year.

Officials with the Ohio Health Department say their own survey found about 22 percent of Ohioans smoked last year. They say smoking is still a huge health concern and the percent of smokers in the state is not decreasing.

The ruling issued this week says a lower court erred when it ruled Zeno’s Victorian Village wasn’t responsible for the actions of patrons who were smoking. That original ruling said the Ohio Department of Health exceeded its boundaries when it levied more than $33,000 in fines against the Ohio State-area Italian restaurant. But those fines were reinstated after the 10th district court of appeals found what it called “overwhelming evidence” that the bar’s owners repeatedly and intentionally violated the state’s Smoke Free Act. The American Cancer Society has supported the state throughout the legal fight the society’s John Hoctor.

“It’s upholding the enforcement of Smoke Free Ohio and the state’s right to enfoce the law and collect the fines that are due to the state following a thorough investigation,” Hoctor says.

Attorneys for Zeno’s say they’re already planning an appeal to the state Supreme Court.

LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW WITH PROFESSOR ELIZABETH KLEIN BY PRESSING THE PLAY BUTTON ABOVE.

The state is appealing the Franklin County ruling, which says the department exceeded its authority by holding Zeno’s bar responsible for the actions of its patrons.

Judge David Cain says the department fined Zeno’s despite “no smoking” signs, the removal of ashtrays and requests by employees that smokers extinguish cigarettes.

The bar was defended by the Columbus-based 1851 Center for Constitutional Law.

Health department Director Alvin Jackson says the decision is surprising because dozens of other cases have been decided in the state’s favor. The law center says the case is different because the others were administrative reviews and because the attorney general has sought to make an example of Zeno’s.

The Buckeye Institute, arguing on behalf of a Toledo tavern called the Pour House, says in a lawsuit before a state appeals court that the state is requiring bars to exercise near total control over their customers.

Attorney Maurice Thompson says bars must be given a reasonable length of time to confront smoking patrons before a citation may be issued.

But Attorney General Richard Cordray says the law is simple: If smoking is occurring, it’s the bar’s fault.

Cordray brought enforcement to a new level last week when he sued two bars alleging they had repeatedly flouted the ban.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

The bar known as Zeno’s Victorian Village has been cited several times for smoking violations since the state’s no-smoking rule went into effect. Zeno’s owner Dick Allen says the smoking ban’s terminology is too vague.

“We follow all the directives, we have the signs up, we tell all the patrons. If they refuse to listen to me there’s no direction for what I should do then. Obviously I don’t want to risk a lawsuit physically confronting somebody,’ Allen said.

Bartender Holly Watts testified she always asks smokers to extinguish their cigarettes and that she customarily confiscates paper cups being used for ash trays.

The attorney representing Zeno’s, Matt Thompson, tried to show that inspectors from the health department did not interview bar patrons or employees.

“The inspectors concluded that since an individual was smoking in the establishment that Zeno’s had permitted or egged on that smoking,” Thompson said. “Nothing could be further from the truth. Zeno’s has asked individuals not to smoke. When the inspectors walk in and walk out without asking any questions they don’t know whether the employees have stopped the smoking and been unsuccessful.”

But Assistant City Attorney Josh Cox disagrees. He says the staff at Zeno’s is required to uphold the state’s smoking ban. Under the law, Cox said, ‘a wink and a nod is not sufficient.’

“He’s not allowed to permit people to smoke in his establishment and he has and he’s in violation,” Cox said.

A ruling could be made within the week. If Zeno’s is found to have permitted smoking, civil fines of several thousand dollars could be levied.