HARRISBURG -- Gov. Ed Rendell traveled today to Montgomery County, home of the two legislators who were the strongest advocates of a ban on smoking in public places, to sign the state's new Clean Indoor Air Act.

Mr. Rendell went to Ambler, just north of Philadelphia, a town in the legislative districts of Sen. Stewart Greenleaf, a Republican, and Rep. Michael Gerber, a Democrat. They'd pushed strongly for enactment of the law that will ban smoking in 95 percent of Pennsylvania workplaces and public places.

"All Pennsylvanians will benefit from the persistence of advocates and legislators who refused to quit working until we had joined dozens of other states in banning smoking in most public places,'' Mr. Rendell said.

He said the new law will "protect Pennsylvanians from the deadly health effects of secondhand smoke.''

Mr. Greenleaf has been trying to get the Clean Indoor Air Act enacted since 1993, but he couldn't even get it out of a Senate committee until last year. Mr. Gerber is only in his second term in the House but was a prime sponsor of a tough anti-smoking bill that the House passed last summer.

The Senate, last summer, opted for a bill that had more exceptions (places where smoking would be permitted) than the House bill, so a House-Senate conference committee had to be created. It worked for months to come up with a compromise that finally passed both chambers this month.

The bill, Senate Bill 246, will take effect in 90 days, meaning Sept. 11. The state Health Department will have the main responsibility of enforcing compliance with the law. The Philadelphia Health Department will continue to enforce that city's separate smoke-free law, which is two years old.

More details in tomorrow's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.