But businesses such as bars can still allow smoking if they post a smoker-friendly sign on the door, pay a $250 fee and keep those under age 18 out.

That's the crux of the City Council's 4-3 smoking ban vote.

The Tuesday vote followed months of discussion that largely pitted business rights against public health concerns. Vice Mayor Sue Schlapp and council members Paul Gray and Jim Skelton opposed the ban.

Among key points of the smoking ban:

• People can smoke outside any business if they are at least 10 feet from building entrances.

• Businesses can allow smoking in a room that is entirely enclosed, has independent ventilation, is accessible only to those age 18 and older and is approved by the city's office of central inspection.

• Smokers and business owners can face fines -- up to $100 for the first violation, $200 for the second in the same year and $500 for subsequent violations in the same year -- if they are convicted.

• Charitable organizations can have events with smoking if no one working the event or attending it is younger than 18.

• Businesses can allow events with smoking if they admit only people ages 18 and older and if at least 12 hours pass between the end of the smoking-allowed event and the time the business reopens to people under 18.

• The city's office of central inspection and environmental services department will enforce the law, but police and other city departments can also investigate complaints.

The law will be re-evaluated sometime before 2010 to see whether the city is able to effectively enforce it without creating too much additional work for city inspectors.

"It's going to cover a lot of people," said Cindy Claycomb, co-chair of the Tobacco Free Wichita Coalition.

The coalition had advocated for a "comprehensive" ban that would have made all businesses smoke-free regardless of a customer's age. But only three council members appeared to support that.

Claycomb said the coalition will retool its strategy, perhaps targeting a statewide comprehensive smoking ban. In a column Tuesday, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius said she hopes the Legislature will pass a statewide ban next year.

Representatives from the American Lung Association and the American Cancer Society opposed Wichita's ban, saying that it does not protect everyone and is unfair because not all businesses have to follow the same rules.

Bar employees will still have to work in a smoky environment, something that has been proven by the U.S. surgeon general to increase the risk for heart disease and lung cancer, said Carolyn Gaughan, executive director of the Kansas Academy of Family Physicians.

Paul Weigand, owner of Shooters, a bar south of Hydraulic and Pawnee, said he still has questions about how the ban will be enforced, but he said it is acceptable and will probably work well in the long run.

"Big Brother is still alive and well in Wichita," he said. "But we can live with it."

Council member Jeff Longwell, who helped create a compromise after it became clear there wasn't support for a comprehensive smoking ban, said the ordinance won't make everyone happy, but it will make it less confusing for people who want to avoid second-hand smoke.

"We crafted a true compromise, and I think that it's moving us in the right direction," he said.