And Boston Public Health Commission Executive Director John Auerbach assured councillors that they would be able to enforce the regulation through a system similar to Boston’s— which will rely on four full-time and three part-time inspectors, and phone calls from concerned neighbors.

But the opposing councillors said they even doubt whether this ban will do enough to safeguard the community against health dangers of smoking.

Galluccio said that until the public health commission makes an effort to regulate other workplaces where employees who are exposed to carcinogens—like iron workers and gas station attendants—he would not consider this ban motivated by health concerns.

Councillor Kenneth Reeves argued that if health were the top priority of the ban, the city should ban cigarette sales.

“Let’s do the thing but let’s not footsie around and then pretend that we did it,” he said.

—Staff writer Alexandra N. Atiya can be reached at atiya@fas.harvard.edu.