The board of aldermen in the Pontotoc County town of Ecru have voted to ban smoking in restaurants, stores and most other businesses.

The aldermen on Thursday voted 4-0 with one abstention for an ordinance to ban smoking at indoor places open to the public. Business-related exceptions would be any private shops or offices to which the public is not invited.

Ecru is a town of about 1,050 people in northeast Mississippi.

“There’s an obligation on the part of the public to protect those who can’t protect themselves,” said Alderman James Speck, a physician, who proposed the ordinance. “I’d like to go on the record as one of the first small towns in Mississippi to have a smoking ordinance.”

Based largely on the American Lung Association ordinance that Tupelo, Oxford, Starkville, Mantachie and some other Mississippi municipalities have adopted, Ecru’s ordinance will also enforce a 20-foot smoke-free zone around building entrances.

It will go into effect next month, officials said.