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Perdue warned lawmakers not to meddle in individual liberties in the future, but the governor said he decided this weekend to sign the smoking bill because it could help save lives and cut medical costs.

"This is one that was very close to the line," Perdue said. "Asking government to legislate what we can do for ourselves is a dangerous precedent."

Backers of the measure, including the American Cancer Society, American Lung Association and others, applauded Perdue's action after he made them wait through a lecture on civics and the importance of protecting liberty. The bill signing was held at the National Museum of Patriotism in Atlanta.

"The right of the individual to breath smoke-free air supersedes the rights of smokers," said Senate Health and Human Services Chairman Don Thomas (R-Dalton), a physician who sponsored the bill.

Jack Shipkoski, chief executive officer of the American Cancer Society's South Atlantic Division, said, "By signing this bill into law, Governor Perdue has recognized that eliminating smoking can make a huge positive difference in the health of Georgia residents."

Advocates had been sweating Perdue's decision for weeks.

The governor began hinting he might veto the bill shortly after lawmakers adjourned the 2005 session in March, saying he had problems with state government acting as a "nanny," prying into every nook of the free enterprise system.

He also has sent mixed signals to the anti-smoking crowd in the past. When he took office in 2003, he called for a massive increase in cigarette taxes, saying the state needed the money and that higher prices might help reduce teen smoking. However, he's also advocated huge cutbacks in spending on smoking cessation programs.

While some of Perdue's fellow Republicans also have expressed concerns about the bill, a recent Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll found that 64 percent of Georgians favor the smoking ban.

"I didn't need the Atlanta Journal Constitution to tell me this polls well," the governor said this afternoon.

The bill forbids smoking in most enclosed places of work and recreation but allows restaurants and bars to permit smoking if they don't serve or employ people under age 18. It would take effect July 1.

Thomas said thousands of people die each year from the impact of secondhand smoke, either from cancer or heart problems. He also said Medicaid — the taxpayer-funded health care program for the poor and disabled — spends $419 million a year in Georgia treating smoking-related illness.

Perdue said he never questioned the motives behind the bill, making Georgians healthier. But he worried about the methods lawmakers used to achieve that goal.

"I want a Georgia that is healthy, but I want a Georgia that is free as well," he said.

In some cases, the governor said, restaurant owners who allow smoking in their facilities were lobbying him to approve the ban so they wouldn't have to take the blame from customers if they couldn't smoke.

Of 14 tobacco-growing states surveyed by the National Conference of State Legislatures, only Florida has as broad a ban as the new Georgia law.

The law, which takes effect July 1, will allow smokers to light up only in a handful of public buildings, including bars and restaurants that don't admit people under 18. Violators may be fined $100 to $500.

Of 14 tobacco-growing states surveyed by the National Conference of State Legislatures, only Florida has as broad a ban as Georgia's.

The smoking ban doesn't alarm Dave Reardon, owner of Shillings on the Square, a popular restaurant and watering hole in Marietta. A former smoker, Reardon has already limited smokers to 14 bar stools and one table near the bar. He plans to ban smokers because families are such a big part of his business.

"I don't think the impact will be as big as everyone else does," Reardon said.

But smoker Ricky Lee, a regular customer at El Porton, a Mexican restaurant in Ros-well, said the new law will probably force him to curtail restaurant visits. He's not happy about government imposing more restrictions on him.

"You do what you want to do," Lee said. "This is America, for heaven's sake."

Citing similar concerns about personal liberty, Perdue hinted last month after the Legislature approved the smoking ban that he might veto it. But at a bill-signing ceremony Monday, the governor said he supported the motives of the bill — creating a healthier populace.

"There is no doubt smoking is one of the major contributors to the health problems of many Georgians," Perdue said. "Nonsmokers, typically the majority, do not want themselves or their children subjected to secondhand smoke."

But Perdue added, "Giving advice on how to be healthy and safe is one thing, but we don't want or need government to mandate for us what we eat or drink or how much exercise we get or whether we engage in dangerous activities, from skydiving to smoking." The governor chose to make his remarks at the National Museum of Patriotism in Atlanta.

Sen. Don Thomas (R-Dalton), the bill's main sponsor, is a physician who has been trying to sell the idea for four years. He was gratified by the governor's decision.

"The right of the individual to breathe smoke-free air supersedes the rights of smokers," said Thomas, who received a cigarette pack with "Senate Bill 90" written on it from Perdue.

Health advocates praised the ban, saying it would save lives and tax money.

"It's a great day," said Kathie Cheney of Peachtree City, a former airline flight attendant who often appeared before the Legislature with a large jar depicting the tar and residue of a smoker's lungs, and a sign pleading "My Child Deserves Smoke-Free Air."

"[Now] there are a lot of people who will never get cancer, have a heart attack, have a stroke or lung disease from inhaling second-hand smoke," said Cheney, a lifelong nonsmoker who was diagnosed with throat cancer after inhaling airline passengers' smoke for 20 years.

"Only smokers should be inhaling smoke and we're one step closer to that being a reality," she said.

Restaurateurs will have to make a choice between children and smokers. Some said the choice would be easy.

At La Parrilla, a Mexican restaurant in Marietta, service manager Ricardo Martinez is looking forward to the ban.

"Personally, I smoke but I don't like it in here," said Martinez. "Now we'll have an excuse [to ban smoking]."

But at Cheer's, a Roswell restaurant and bar, owner Peiter Roelofs feared the regulation would drive him out of business. About 75 percent of his nighttime crowd smokes, he says.

"In a place like this, if you can't smoke, you're totally done," he said.

Brian Maloof, general manager of Manuel's Tavern, an Atlanta bar and restaurant popular among politicians and journalists, said the new law is a "compromise we can live with." An early version of the bill would have prohibited smoking entirely in all bars and restaurants.

Maloof estimates about 60 percent of his regular customers smoke. That means children, who sometimes accompanied their parents for lunch, will have to be left at home, he said.

Thomas said thousands of people die each year from the impact of secondhand smoke, either from cancer or heart problems. Medicaid — the taxpayer-funded health care program for the poor and disabled — spends $419 million a year in Georgia treating smoking-related illness, he said.

Perdue said he never questioned the motives behind the bill. But he worried about the methods lawmakers used to achieve that goal.

"I want a Georgia that is healthy, but I want a Georgia that is free as well," he said.

-— Staff writers Michael Pearson, Richard Whitt and Patricia Guthrie contributed to this article.