AUGUSTA (AP) – Smoking will soon be banned at the state mental hospital after a ruling Friday that reversed an earlier decision to allow smoking at the facility.

In his ruling, Court Master Daniel Wathen wrote that smoking is a health hazard and compromises the daily operation of Riverview Psychiatric Center. The ruling reverses Wathen’s 2004 decision in which he said the hospital was in too much turmoil to ban smoking.

On Friday, Wathen said conditions at the hospital have improved to the point that a no-smoking policy now makes sense. When a smoking ban was previously proposed, the hospital had recently gone into receivership and had a new and different management structure.

“There was a great deal of turmoil in the hospital,” he said. “We had studies indicating that something like 70 of 90 clients, and 38 percent of the staff, were smokers.

“It seemed to me (in 2004) this was not the time to be introducing another problem. We needed fewer problems, not more.”

Wathen’s ruling does not set a deadline on when the smoking ban will take effect. The order asks hospital Superintendent David Proffitt to develop a timeline.

Four months ago, Proffitt banned sugar and food and drinks with sugar in them as part of an effort to combat diabetes and obesity among patients.

That move drew the ire of patient advocates, including Helen Bailey, public policy director for the Disability Rights Center.

Bailey said the move amounted to unilateral patient-care decisions when the consent decree required treatment to be tailored to each patient. Bailey could not be reached Friday for comment on the new anti-smoking policy.

Wathen’s order would be delayed if patient advocates file an objection within 21 days requesting a hearing. Proffitt said he expects a court objection to be filed.

Proffitt said that smoking rates have fallen in recent years among the general public, but not among people with mental illness.

Smoking-related health problems are more likely to kill people with mental illness than the underlying mental illness itself, Proffitt said. The no-smoking policy, he said, aims to remove one treatment obstacle faced by psychiatric patients.