BATON ROUGE - The East Baton Rouge Metro Council has voted in favor of a parish-wide smoking ban after months of deliberations.

The proposal aims to ban smoking in all public places across the parish, including businesses like casinos and bars. The ban is set to take effect next June.

The proposed ban was first introduced in 2016 and has been the topic of debate in several Metro Council meetings since then. On Wednesday, the majority of council members voted to approve the proposal.

Since it was first introduced, the ban has been amended ahead of the final vote.

The vote, which was originally scheduled for June, had been deferred to August after the council failed to come to a consensus.

The final vote was 7-5.