Members of a Westbrook American Legion post will be lighting up for the last time this month, after the club voted Tuesday to ban smoking.

On Feb. 15, smokers will be herded outside and ash trays will be out of sight at American Legion Memorial Post 197 on Conant Street.

Initially exempted from the statewide smoking ban on bars that began in 2004, veterans organizations in 2005 were required to hold a vote every three years for members to decide whether to place their own ban on smoking at the private clubs.

The Conant Street post was not scheduled to hold that vote until September, but, according to lounge manager Dave Martin, several members requested the vote be held sooner. Of the 20 people who voted at the meeting, 14 voted in favor of the ban, four were opposed and one abstained, he said, adding that club membership is 468.

Tom Naragon, assistant to the adjutant of the American Legion Department of Maine, said of the 172 posts in the state, 39 have bars, and seven of them are non-smoking. According to Diana Brown, city assistant code enforcement officer, the Eagles Club on Saco Street is the only other place in the city where smoking is allowed. American Legion Post 62, on Dunn Street in Westbrook, does not have a lounge and does not allow smoking.

Though some veterans believe they’ve earned the right to smoke through their service in the military, other non-smoking veterans weren’t spending time at the club because of the stench and its health consequences.

“You have a burning in your lungs,” said John Gaudet, who’s been a member of the legion for about six years and comes in on Saturday and Sunday nights. He said with the smoking ban, he’ll probably be spending more time at the post – and saving on detergent.

“The odor is terrible,” he said. “We have to put our clothes in laundry right away.”

Maine implemented a law banning smoking in restaurants in 1999, which was expanded to include bars in 2004, and increased the cigarette tax in 2005 to $2, one of the highest in the country. In September 2006, Westbrook took its own initiative to prevent exposure of secondhand smoke by passing an ordinance that banned smoking in public places, including in parks and on the riverwalk.

According to the Partnership for a Tobacco-Free Maine, a program of the state’s Center for Disease Control, 21 percent of adults in the state smoke, and each year, 2,200 people die from their own smoking. Every day, seven deaths in the state are caused by tobacco use, and one of them is from secondhand smoke.

Still, many veterans at the post last week said smoking is one of very few rights they still have.

“Telling people they form a habit, and they can’t have it. That’s taking away freedom,” said Bernie Gillespie, who used to smoke, but quit.

Stanley Philbin remembers smoking as a daily ritual when he was in the service.

“They’d stop everything and say ‘Smoke ’em if you got ’em,'” said Philbin, who believes smoking should remain an individual choice for each veteran.

“I think we’ve earned our right to have our own club where we can smoke if we want to. We’re not breaking anybody’s arm to come in here,” said Dennis Axelson. “We have a lot of non-smokers that come in, and it doesn’t bother them at all,” he said.

But according to Martin, there are plenty of people who are bothered by the smoke, and “they have just as much rights as anyone else,” he said.

Martin, who has emphysema, said he can’t leave his office all day because of the smoke, and has to head out the door as soon as he’s done with work.

“I’d love to get out and have a beer, but I can’t,” he said.

He also said there are a few members who are on oxygen, and having them around the smoke “is a very dangerous practice.”

Bartender Greg MacDowell, who has asthma, will also welcome the fresh air in the club.

“It bothers me,” MacDowell said about the smoke, and he knows he’s not alone. “There are a lot of people with health issues that won’t come in here because of the smoking,” he said.

Though employees believe the ban will bring in more business and members say it will drive customers away, John Gaudet thinks, after the dust settles, the same crowd will stick around.

“I’m sure it will change for a little bit,” he said, “but they’ll come back again.”