Check the Web if you want no smoke

By TAMMIE SMITH
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Consumers looking for a smoke-free place to have a meal can find that information on the Virginia Department of Health's restaurant-inspections Web site.
The state agency recently added information on fast-food and full-service restaurants' smoking policies.
To check a restaurant's most recent health inspection or its smoking status, go to www.vdh.virginia.gov and click on restaurant inspections.
"During the last couple of years, there have been several bills in the General Assembly that haven't made it through that ban smoking in restaurants," said Gary Hagy, food and environmental services division director at the state Health Department. "That has created a lot of interest by the public. We have gotten letters expressing the desire for restaurants to be nonsmoking. So we decided the least we could do is get some information out."
Hagy said there was already a category to indicate a restaurant's smoking status in the databases used to compile information on inspections.
"We asked our vendor to figure out a way to put this on the Web in a meaningful manner," Hagy said .
The new information indicates whether a facility bans smoking, permits it in designated areas or permits it anywhere on premises. The site also tells consumers what percentage of a locality's fast food and full-service eating establishments are smoke-free. For instance, Richmond, Henrico County and Chesterfield County show 57 percent, 69 percent and 54 percent of restaurants smoke-free, respectively.
Since 2003, the state Health Department's Web site has included food-safety information about restaurants and other food-service facilities based on the more than 60,000 unannounced restaurant inspections done in a year.
State officials say consumers can expect about a week's delay between the time a restaurant inspection report is entered into the database and when the new information will appear on the Web site. Restaurant-smoking-status information can be updated more quickly.
Contact Tammie Smith at (804) 649-6572 or TLsmith@timesdispatch.com.