Study: smoking bans don't hurt restaurants, bars

Awesome, lets take away the business owners right to set policy in his own establishment. Let the owners decide if they want smoking or not. If there is such a demand for smoke free establishments places will do this on there own. There is no reason to take the choice away from the owner.

I thought Sikkema was a big time Republican and against having government interfere with peoples lives. This is why lobbyists need to be banned--they always go to the highest bidder.

Yea so if you want to smoke GO SOMEWHERE ELSE!!

i am sorry, but if you work in a bar, you know you work with smoke. Smoking and drinking go hand in hand for most people. I dont really feel to bad for bar workers, that is something that most know before they begin working there. it is like putting up buildings: you already know you are going to be working off the ground, you dont like that, you dont work there!

Illinois passed this law and bars and restaurants have lost alot of customers, on the other hand drunk driving arrest have gone up due to the number of people choosing to drive over the boarder to Wisconsin to drink, eat, and smoke....

It's got to hurt them...have the surveyors sat outside for a period of time to keep track of how many people walk up to a restaurant to find that it is non-smoking only to turn around and find a different one?

superFLY wrote:

Yea so if you want to smoke GO SOMEWHERE ELSE!!

How about if you don't like smoke YOU SO SOMEWHERE ELSE!!!?

Most drunks and riffraff are cigarette smokers.

sikkema? think tank?? PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!

superFLY wrote:

Yea so if you want to smoke GO SOMEWHERE ELSE!!

if you don't want to smell the smoke GO SOMEWHERE ELSE... it is personal choice to visit a bar and some restraunts.

Went to Windsor Casino Friday, smoke free throughout, place was packed. They also said
it would hurt business before they did it

katie wrote:

i am sorry, but if you work in a bar, you know you work with smoke. Smoking and drinking go hand in hand for most people. I dont really feel to bad for bar workers, that is something that most know before they begin working there. it is like putting up buildings: you already know you are going to be working off the ground, you dont like that, you dont work there!

They won't be working in smoke anymore if the do decide to ban it.
If people want to ruin there lungs and get lung cancer thats their decision... theres a reason why the rest of us dont smoke...

yeah but all these "studys" sure cost alot of taxpayer money.
want to have a "study" done on what joe citizen thinks about that?

"It was prepared for The Campaign for Smokefree Air"

Hardly an impartial organization. If the health nazi's don't like smoking then why don't they open there own bar and leave the smokers alone. If their propaganda is true the place should be packed.

I am all for a statewide ban on smoking. Those of us with respiratory problems, children and the elderly with breathing difficulties are continually "assaulted" by having the "run the gauntlet" to get into stores because smokers congregate by the doors and you have to pass through their smoke to enter. We are bombarded by the thick haze of smoke in restaurants and in recent years have been looking for restaurants that are smoke free to frequent. My nephew died at 37 of lung cancer, my sister in law died of emphysema at 61, as a couple of examples.....I am tired of losing loved ones to this very dangerous habit. The tobacco companies are laughing all the way to the bank. They want every generation hooked, so they can take advantage of people with this very addicting habit. I, also, would support legislation passing to penalize people for smoking in their cars with children as passengers. Children are the innocents and don't have a voice in whether they have to breathe in these carcinogens. There are many kids with lung problems that their parents seem to be indifferent to, as long as they can smoke their cigarettes. Something needs to be done to spare all of us for other individuals poor decisions.

Well, if the smoke doesn't kill you, something else will. Might as well just enjoy life instead of just waiting for something to kill you and being paranoid that everything is going to hurt you.

One more thing in response to "rval 2" comment:

Have you seen how many of us walk up to a restaurant and see if it's smoking or non and LEAVE to GO FIND A SMOKE FREE ESTABLISHMENT?? Plenty of us. Ban the smoking for everyone's sakes....

I have a hard time with what Mr Sikkema stated in that article.

".....But Sikkema said studies have shown secondhand smoke affects the health of customers and workers in places that allow smoking, affecting not just lungs and respiratory systems but hearts and cardiovascular systems. Scientific evidence indicates that having a separate nonsmoking section or cleaning the air doesn't eliminate exposure to secondhand smoke, he said......."

My Current employer had a designated smoking area. Totally closed off from the non smoking employess. Had its own ventilation system that vented the air up through the roof that was about 50' high. The only way anyone was to come in contact with the smoke was if they choose to enter the room or go up on the roof and stand next to the vent.

Now with the new (ottawa county)law where they tell people how to run their business, my employer was forced to tear down the smoking room and move that area outside, 25' from the front door.

Now EVERYONE is exposed to the smoke. EVERYONE!. That's what I find ironic when the state/county goverment lays down these type of blanket laws. They don't really have a clue what they are doing. Yeah it looks good on paper but in the real world it just doesn't fly.

So now all the non-smoking employee's the county is trying to protect at my work are now are forced to breathe in second hand smoke because they have to walk through the cloud the smoking area creates. The smoking area is within the guidlines of the county law but what the law makers of Ottawa County failed to realize is that, the wind can change direction at any given time thus blowing the smoke right in the faces of the non-smokers they're trying to protect. There have been times when I have climbed from my vehicle 150'-200' away and can instantly smell the smoke. Whereas before, with the indoor room, I never did.

The best scenario would have been to let my employer leave the smoke room intake. Then they would've had less second hand smoke exposure then what they have now.

Brilliant!!

I've lived in 2 smoke free states. Everytime I visit my family and walk into the Plainfield Denny's, I'm hit with a stench and it takes me a second before I realize it's the stench of a smoking section. Anyway, all business say it'll hurt business if they have to do it... but, still plenty of packed bars and casinos and restaurants in Florida and Nevada. ;)