White River Junction -- Not long ago, the VA Medical Center here provided a room where veterans and employees could go to smoke. But ashtrays have since been replaced by high-tech fitness equipment, and smoking has been relegated to an outdoor shelter by the parking lot.

The former smoking lounge, just off a lobby in an administrative building, closed about two years ago, according to VA Medical Center spokesman Andy LaCasse.

At the time, Vermont law allowed employers to set aside indoor smoking areas for workers. LaCasse said that the hospital's acting director, Kathryn Harty, took the initiative to move smoking outside.

“It was obvious that it needed to be out,” LaCasse said.

On the first of this month, all Vermont workplaces that hadn't already banned smoking indoors were required by law to do so.

The Legislature enacted a change to the 1987 Smoking in the Workplace law earlier this year, taking out a provision that allowed designated smoking areas in employee cafeterias and lounges. Gov. Jim Douglas signed the amendment into law in May.

The law was changed to keep pace with mounting evidence of the dangers of second-hand smoke, and research showing that bans dramatically cut nonsmokers' exposure to tobacco smoke indoors, according to Sheri Lynn, chief of the Vermont Department of Health tobacco control program.

“There is no level of exposure to second-hand smoke that's safe,” Lynn said. “Even short exposure has an immediate and harmful effect.”

Howard Parker, owner of HEB Manufacturing Co. in Chelsea, Vt., said that his company complied with the indoor smoking ban.

“We had a small corner of the warehouse where people could smoke if they wanted,” he said.

On July 1, the company hung a sign to remind employees that smoking was no longer permitted inside.

He said that 10 to 15 percent of the company's 40 employees are smokers.

“I haven't heard any repercussions yet. I think they were all planning on it,” Parker said.

“It was a minor change for me,” said Toby Jasmin, co-owner of Jasmin Auto Body in White River Junction.

Jasmin said that before the law took effect, he used to smoke in his office on weekends, when no one else was around, but that he doesn't anymore.

He said that before the state law changed, he didn't go out of his way to accommodate smokers at the shop.

“I don't even put a thing outside for butts,” he said.

LaCasse, the medical center spokesman, said that when the indoor smoking lounge was converted to a fitness center -- complete with a Nintendo Wii and a Technogym cable exercise machine -- it was “abated” to remove building materials permeated with tobacco tar.

The walls were taken down to bare concrete and scrubbed clean before new drywall was hung. The suspended ceiling was torn out, and even the roof joists were cleaned.

“We took a lot of time to do that,” LaCasse said.

A 2006 U.S. Surgeon General's Report concluded that banning smoking indoors “fully protects” nonsmokers from second-hand smoke, and that merely “separating smokers from nonsmokers, cleaning the air, and ventilating buildings” does not keep nonsmokers from breathing smoke.

Lynn said that the health department doesn't have an estimate of how many workplaces in Vermont had designated smoking areas before the law took effect.

In a 2008 telephone survey, the department asked 1,880 Vermonters a variety of questions about smoking; among people who worked indoors most of the time, 21 percent said they had breathed smoke from someone else's cigarette at work in the last week.

Ninety-five percent of Vermonters surveyed said they thought that smoking should not be allowed in indoor work areas.

The state smoking law defines a workplace broadly as “an enclosed structure where employees perform services for an employer.”

Lynn said that federal facilities, such as a VA hospital, are not exempt from the state law.

“It doesn't matter who is the operator of the workplace,” she said.

The Vermont Veterans' Home in Bennington is exempt because it was deemed a residence and not a workplace.

On a Thursday afternoon last week, smokers congregating at an outdoor smoking area of the White River Junction VA had mixed views having to smoke outside.

“We're a health care facility. Smoking should be across the street,” said administrator Dennis Vaillancourt, who had stopped for a smoke before going into the hospital.

Bruce Bouley said that as a volunteer for the nonprofit Friends of Veterans in White River Junction, he used to frequent the hospital's smoking lounge.

He said he is a nonsmoker, but that he didn't mind the room's smoke-filled air. “You went in there to talk to people. It's camaraderie,” he said.

He said he thought that taking away the indoor smoking area was unfair to veterans and employees. “Society's looking at it now as if you're doing something wrong,” he said. “We’re losing all our choices.”

In 2008, 17 percent of adults in Vermont were current smokers, according to the annual health department survey. That was down from 22 percent in 2002.

LaCasse said that as a group, veterans have a higher smoking rate than the general population.

Military culture has long encouraged smoking, he said. “You're talking about four generations of soldiers.”

Other Upper Valley hospitals, such as Mt. Ascutney Hospital and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, have banned smoking everywhere on campus, even outside.

LaCasse said that the White River VA hospital doesn't plan to ban smoking outside any time soon, considering that many of the veterans it serves are older and have smoked most of their lives.

“Those outside facilities are used very regularly,” he said. “They're going to stay for a little while.”

Martin Downs can be reached at mdowns@vnews.com or (603) 727-3210.