The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to make the city the first in the nation to ban the sale of tobacco products at most pharmacies beginning this fall. The law will ban the sale of all tobacco products in pharmacies in the city.

The measure was proposed by Mayor Gavin Newsom and was modelled on similar bans in eight Canadian provinces. The law was approved by the city’s board of supervisors in an 8-3 vote. The ban must undergo a second vote before being enacted into law.

If approved, the ban will go into effect Oct.1.

Some supervisors said the law would be a “first step” toward additional bans on the sale of tobacco in the city.

“Whatever we can do to make this country a smoke-free zone, we should do it,” said Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi. He voted in favour of the law which will ban the sale of all tobacco products in pharmacies in the city. The law will affect sales of pharmacies sales such as Walgreen Co. and CVS Caremark Corp. Supermarkets, drug stores and mass merchandisers accounted for 19%, or more than $13 billion, in U.S. tobacco sales last year, the Wall Street Journal reported.

“The only discussion (before the vote) was why the proposal wasn’t broader [to] include a ban at supermarkets and (bulk-sale) warehouses, too,” Mitch Katz, director of San Francisco's Public Health Department, was quoted as saying by the same source.

The California Medical Association and the American Cancer Society supported the law.

According to the Centers for Disease and Prevention tobacco use is responsible for more than 400,000 deaths a year in the U.S.