We would like to congratulate Ocean County businesses and patrons for their compliance with the New Jersey Smoke-Free Air Act. In doing so, both our business owners and business patrons have helped with Ocean County's success with the implementation of this law.

This law protects the residents of New Jersey from the harmful effects of secondhand smoke. Presently, the law only addresses indoor structures. Oral and written comments have been made to the state Department of Health on the proposed regulations, especially regarding "outside areas" and hopefully, regulations will be published soon.

This act went into effect April 15. At that time, we were not sure what to expect. In our daily travels we asked merchants what they thought the effect might be for them personally. We received numerous mixed comments; many were afraid they would lose money, many told us they had wanted to go smoke-free but were waiting for everyone else to so, and many felt it was long overdue.

The same day the law went into effect, the age of persons to whom merchants can sell tobacco products was raised from 18 to 19. Prior to that we received calls from the media on what was going to happen that weekend.

We also received calls from merchants before April 15 on outdoor regulations since many references to those areas were listed in the "proposed" guidelines. Again, the law presently addresses only indoor structures.

The weekend of April 15 came to pass with very few calls. Since the law went into effect, we receive very few complaints, which we respond to immediately.

Most of the calls that we do get are still related to outside smoking areas. Although outdoor regulations have yet to be adopted, we suggest that the merchant place [an] ashtray far enough away from the door so that people are not bothered by the smoke when they enter or leave the establishment.

We have continued to survey merchants since [April]. One merchant, who assured me that his establishment would lose money and customers, said business has not changed; the only compliant is customers entering establishments complain of the smoke outside the doorway. We again suggested that they designate a smoking area and put an ashtray at that spot.

We have seen that most merchants have complied with the law and have displayed the proper signage regarding that tobacco products cannot be sold to anyone under the age of 19.

If you have questions regarding the Smokefree Air law or if merchants need signage regarding the age of sale of tobacco products, please call Leslie Terjesen at the Ocean County Health Depart-ment at (732) 341-9700, ext. 7224. Once again, Ocean County businesses have done a super job in implementing this law and helping to create a smoke-free New Jersey.

Leslie Terjesen

Ella Boyd, V.M.D.

Edward Rumen

Ocean County

Health Department

Toms River