BUFFALO -- Smoking is now off-limits not only in but around 15 shopping malls in New York and Massachusetts.

Syracuse-based Pyramid Management Group Llc declared all of its mall properties tobacco-free Thursday.

That means no cigarettes, pipes, chewing tobacco or electronic cigarettes anywhere on mall property, including sidewalks, loading docks, parking lots and construction areas. The ban applies to Pyramid employees, along with tenant stores, vendors, delivery people and shoppers.

Pyramid spokesman James Soos said the policy is meant to support people who are sensitive to secondhand smoke or trying to quit smoking and to make making shopping more enjoyable and healthier for everyone.

The company will help mall employees who want to quit smoking get information and counseling.

"This policy means shoppers and their kids won't have to walk a gauntlet of harmful secondhand smoke just to enter a mall," said Alvaro Carrascal, spokesman for the American Cancer Society of New York and New Jersey.

In New York, the ban applies to: Walden Galleria, Cheektowaga; Aviation Mall, Queensbury; Carousel Center, Syracuse; Champlain Centre, Plattsburgh; Crossgates Mall, Albany; Galleria at Crystal Run, Middletown; Palisades Center, West Nyack; Poughkeepsie Galleria; Salmon Run Mall, Watertown; Sangertown Square, New Hartford and The Shops at Ithaca Mall.

-- AP

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