Thursday’s North Carolina House of Representatives vote to ban smoking in restaurants and bars, coming just days after the Senate approved a similar bill, was a good move in that it made no exemptions for various types of dining and drinking establishments.

Whether the intent of the bill — to ban smoking in such establishments — is good or not is certainly a matter of varying opinion, but at least the General Assembly had the good sense to make the bill uniform. What would have been unfair is if the legislators had done what some other states have, making exceptions for so-called bars or nightclubs, while banning smoking in restaurants.

Making such a distinction puts those establishments which have both a thriving restaurant businesses as well as a vibrant bar business at a disadvantage to those who claim to simply be a bar or nightclub.

Many dining establishments which cater to the lunch and dinner crowd during the day and evening also depend upon those folks who frequent bars later at night for part of their business. Had the General Assembly tried to make a distinction between the two types of establishments, those wanting to visit the late night bars who also wanted to light up almost certainly would go to the places where they could smoke — an unfair government-sponsored advantage for those businesses.

Whether one applauds the vote or finds it offensive and intrusive, at least the state legislators are treating everyone involved evenhandedly.