NEWS
Smoking ban may be tried in court
GREENSBORO — Gate City Billiards Country Club has pool tables but no pool, no golf course and no ladies in white gloves nibbling on finger sandwiches. In fact, owner Don Liebes says he aims to have only one thing in common with the country club set: smoking.
“I opened my business a year and a half ago,” Liebes said. “Smoking was a large part of my plan when we opened.”
He put about $70,000 extra into the business toward things like setting aside a room for nonsmoking games and adding air filtration gear. The aim was to create a high-end billiards club where stogie-chewing sharks and health-conscious aces could peacefully coexist.
About six months after Gate City opened, Gov. Bev Perdue signed a smoking ban for most bars and restaurants into law.
Since that law went into effect Jan. 2, state records show 83 businesses have been cited for failing to comply — 16 in Guilford County. Most have received warning letters, although Gate City is one of two in Greensboro issued $200 fines by the health department for repeated violations.
Liebes already has appealed his two fines to the Guilford County Board of Health, losing each time. He plans to take his case to District Court.
His would be only the second case in the state to go that far.
Two bar owners in Pitt County have already taken a case to District Court, saying the law violates the concepts of equal protection enshrined in the federal constitution and state law. A hearing on the merits of the case has not been scheduled.
Aside from Guilford and Pitt counties, four other counties have issued fines under the ban, according to the state.
The owners of the Hookah Bliss Orange County, a bar where customers used water pipes to inhale flavorful smoke, posted notice to their website that they have shut down the business because of the smoking ban. A similar business in New Hanover County agreed that it only would allow patrons to smoke nontobacco products such as tea leaves.
Bars that were fined in Forsyth and Wake counties are now “in compliance,” according to interviews with the owners and health officials.
“The compliance overall has been great across the state,” said Jim Martin, who oversees policy and programs for the N.C. Tobacco Prevention and Control Branch.
Although state and local complaint lines received a flurry of calls about bars and restaurants not obeying the ban early in the year, Martin says most businesses seem to have adapted to the new rules.
A study showed air quality has improved in bars and restaurants since the ban went into effect. Martin said studies are under way to see if the number of heart attacks in the state drop as a benefit of the new law.
Healthier or not, not all business owners go along gladly.
The day the smoking ban went into effect was bitter cold, said Phillip Teer, owner of The Pitts, a High Point membership bar.
“I couldn’t send my customers outside that day,” Teer said.
He estimates that 80 percent of his patrons smoke and he let them continue to puff indoors until The Pitts received two warning letters later in the spring. A third letter would have brought a fine with it.
“After the second violation, that’s when I started the next day telling customers that you’ve got to go outside,” he said.
He’s building a two-walled shelter outside his bar to give smokers more cover from the rain and he’s given some thought to helping Gate City with its appeal.
“We’re unhappy with it,” said Richard Henderson, the owner of Breakers, a membership bar on Friendly Avenue that received a $200 fine earlier this month. He chalked up the fine to a mistake, saying about three-quarters of his customers are smokers and not all have adjusted to the new rules.
“They’re all used to ... playing pool and smoking,” he said.
Henderson, too, said he may join with other bar owners to support Gate City’s appeal. The Guilford County Libertarian Party also has pledged support by collecting donations and circulating a petition aimed at persuading lawmakers to reverse the law. Liebes said the owner of the 3 Thirty 3 Sports Bar in Burlington has offered financial help with court costs.
Gate City’s appeals involve two tactics. First, Liebes noted that the state exempted country clubs and nonprofit clubs such as the Elks Lodge and VFW from the smoking ban. So he added “country club” to the legal name.
“We felt that if we renamed ourselves a country club, it’s pretty hard for them to say we’re not one,” Liebes said.
Lawyers and lawmakers interviewed say that line of appeal is unlikely to succeed. Even Liebes concedes it’s a long shot — the law is convoluted but clear enough that it means “country club” in the traditional sense.
Gate City will also appeal on equal protection grounds, much like the bars involved in the Pitt County case. Liebes points out that the law was designed, in part, to protect workers from secondhand smoke.
“Why, if I were tax exempt, would my employees not be entitled to the same protections?” he asked.
And why, asked the former Hanes Brands executive, should his business be treated differently from a similar operation just because one is a nonprofit and the other is not?
Liebes hired a lawyer last week and is waiting on a final written ruling from the Health Department before heading to court. In the meantime, he said, Gate City still allows smokers to light up while they rack ’em up — at least until this case is settled.
Contact Mark Binker at (919) 832-5549 or mark.binker@news-record.com
Accompanying Photos
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Tristar500
May 16, 2010 - 4:09 am EDTI wonder what Don Liebes will say about this the day he's diagnosed with terminal lung cancer?
At least he can declare on his death bed he went out fighting!
What a bunch of morons..
casper
May 16, 2010 - 1:11 pm EDTHe would say that as an American, he had the Freedom to make that choice. Just like you Liberal Morons have the choice to go to a smoking establishment or not. Each time you allow the government to decide what is best for you, you are saying that you are too stupid to decide for yourself. ( Which in your case, I would agree). Government is not the answer to all your wants and needs, unless you are a Parasite.
jeffic_fail
May 17, 2010 - 2:06 am EDTCasper - How does it fail to be the biggest epic failure on this entire website? That is quite an accomplishment.
MsCitizen2
May 17, 2010 - 7:34 pm EDToldest man
smoked for 110 years
http://www.israel21c.org/201003097772/briefs/oldest-man-in-the-world-liv...
Britain's oldest man, credits: cigs, whiskey & wild women
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5579239/War-vete...
cuban, 126: not too many cigars
http://www.wayodd.com/worlds-oldest-man-from-cuba-dies-at-126/v/5444/
105 woman quit smoking at 102
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/03/21/woman...
And let's not forget Granny D Haddock, who passed on last winter at age 100, and walked across America to support Campaign Finance Reform at age 89/90, after smoking for 50 years.
Liebe may be around to toast you at your funeral.
Tristar500
May 16, 2010 - 4:17 am EDTHere's some material you might like to look at Mr. Liebes.
buzzman
May 16, 2010 - 5:19 am EDTHow do these idiots justify putting employees at risk? If one wishes to kill oneself by such methods, that's OK. However, they shouldn't be allowed to kill others.
Interested
May 16, 2010 - 7:30 am EDTThe more appropriate question is why the "idiots" in Raleigh felt justified in protecting some employees while allowing other employees to be put at risk. As long as they continue to pass legislation with exemptions with no real justification for that exemption, or to pass legislation that benefits a particular group without benefitting all, we as taxpayers will continue to pay to defend against such lawsuits. Why should country clubs have an exemption? Not all members smoke. Why should non-profits not have to comply? They have non-smoking patrons and employees as well. The reason - these groups put pressure to bear and someone gave them what they wanted - and no one complained because these groups were socially acceptable.
Much as I detest cigarettes and their smoke, and as much as I have enjoyed the benefits of this new law, I have to agree with these business owners - either smoking is permitted in all restaurants/clubs or it is prohibited in all. Can anyone imagine that permitting segregation in private clubs and non-profits but not in other venues would be acceptable? Why should something detrimental to the health of others be any different?
harleyrider1978
May 16, 2010 - 6:40 am EDTThe new Tobacco Prohibition
I would like to take the time to tell the entire community about a falsehood so big that everyone who believes in freedom should be appauled.
This falsehood is so big it resonates from historical fact forward to this day. This falsehood is so big billions of dollars have been spent to make it believable to those of us who dont take the time to look up the facts.
We all remember reading about alcohol prohibition,but did you know there was also tobacco prohibition going on before alcohol became such a target of the last nanny staters.
Our great grandparents lived thru prohibition and the great depression,they also lived thru tobacco prohibition.
Heres a time line starting in 1900,dont be surprised to see the same thing playing out today nearly 100 years later.
1901: REGULATION: Strong anti-cigarette activity in 43 of the 45 states. "Only Wyoming and Louisiana had paid no attention to the cigarette controversy, while the other forty-three states either already had anti-cigarette laws on the books or were considering new or tougher anti-cigarette laws, or were the scenes of heavy anti- cigarette activity" (Dillow, 1981:10).
1904: New York: A judge sends a woman is sent to jail for 30 days for smoking in front of her children.
1904: New York City. A woman is arrested for smoking a cigarette in an automobile. "You can't do that on Fifth Avenue," the arresting officer says.
1907: Business owners are refusing to hire smokers. On August 8, the New York Times writes: "Business ... is doing what all the anti-cigarette specialists could not do."
1917: SMOKEFREE: Tobacco control laws have fallen, including smoking bans in numerous cities, and the states of Arkansas, Iowa, Idaho and Tennessee.
1937: hitler institutes laws against smoking.This one you can google.
Now onto the falsehood......
We have been told for years by smoke free advocates that second hand smoke is the cause of everything from johnnys ear ache to cousin ED'S lung cancer. But wheres the proof!!!
Remember they claim 50,000 deaths a year yet,there are no bodys not even mass graves of the dead to second hand smoke.We await the names of these victims.
A simple stroll down historys road say 10 years or so and we start to get at the truth......
A federal Judge by the name of osteen got a case dropped in his lap in North Carolina,the case was that of EPA'S study on second hand smoke/environmental tobacco smoke.The judge an anti-tobbaco judge by reputation spent 4 years going thru the study and interviewing scientists at EPA and came to the conclusion :
JUNK SCIENCE
''EPA's 1992 conclusions are not supported by reliable scientific evidence. The report has been largely discredited and, in 1998, was legally vacated by a federal judge.Before its 1992 report, EPA had always used epidemiology's gold standard CI of 95 percent to measure statistical significance. But because the U.S. studies chosen[cherry picked] for the report were not statistically significant within a 95 percent CI, for the first time in its history EPA changed the rules and used a 90 percent CI, which doubled the chance of being wrong.
This allowed it to report a statistically significant 19 percent increase [a 1.19rr] of lung cancer cases in the nonsmoking spouses of smokers over those cases found in nonsmoking spouses of nonsmokers. Even though the RR was only 1.19--an amount far short of what is normally required to demonstrate correlation or causality--the agency concluded this was proof SHS increased the risk of U.S. nonsmokers developing lung cancer by 19 percent.''
So here we find that second hand smoke was made a political scapegoat by EPA.Lets not forget how EPA has reworked the global warming studys just this last summer. Where its top scientists paper was rebuked because it didnt carry the EPA'S stand that global warming was real.
The political shenanigans surrounding SHS/ETS go deep not only with the government and its health agencies but also to the big pharmaceutical companies and non-profit orginizations aka ACS,ALA,AHA and a meriad of others. All lobbying for smoking bans and their weapon of choise Propaganda paid for by big pharma and tax dollars. Studys made to order that second hand smoke is deadly. Take a memory note here too,over 250 studys on shs/ets have found it safe.
Yet a simple look at the chemistry shows us that its:
About 90% of secondary smoke is composed of water vapor and ordinary air with a minor amount of carbon dioxide. The volume of water vapor of second hand smoke becomes even larger as it qickly disperses into the air,depending upon the humidity factors within a set location indoors or outdoors. Exhaled smoke from a smoker will provide 20% more water vapor to the smoke as it exists the smokers mouth.
4 % is carbon monoxide.
6 % is those supposed 4,000 chemicals to be found in tobacco smoke. Unfortunatley for the smoke free advocates these supposed chemicals are more theorized than actually found.What is found is so small to even call them threats to humans is beyond belief.Nanograms,picograms and femptograms......
(1989 Report of the Surgeon General p. 80).
Now, how odd that when we search the smoke free activists sites not one of them mentions that water vapor and air are the main components of second hand smoke. Is this just a fluke or an outright omission to further their political healthscare against the general public.
The last informative tid bit I have for you is what does OSHA have to say about all this secondhand smoke stuff.
Here is where it gets interesting,it seems John Banzhaf, founder and president of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) decided to sue OSHA to make a rule on shs/ets not that OSHA didnt want to play ball with him,its just that the scientific facts didnt back up a rule to start with.
Now for a rule to happen Osha has to send out for comments for a period of time and boy did the comments fly in, over 40,000 of them....Osha has whats called PEL'S and limits for an 8 hour period of exposure to chemicals in indoor environments...[epa is in charge of outdoor air]some smoke free groups have tried to use 30 minute air samples using epa monitoring to create a air borne healthscare.
The actual standard to use is OSHA'S
The EPA standard is to be used for OUTSIDE ambient air quality and it is the average over a period of 3 years.
The proper standard to compare to is the OSHA standard for indoor air quality for respirable particulate (not otherwise specified) for nuisance dusts and smoke. That standard is 5000 ug/m3 on a time-weighted average (8 hours a day, 5 days a week) and is intended to be protective of health over an average working life of 30 years!
This is where second hand smoke really becomes a joke,remember its nearly 90% water vapor and air.....now lets get to the facts of toxicology and dose makes the poison:
According to independent Public and Health Policy Research group, Littlewood & Fennel of Austin, Tx, on the subject of secondhand smoke........
They did the figures for what it takes to meet all of OSHA'S minimum PEL'S on shs/ets.......Did it ever set the debate on fire.
They concluded that:
All this is in a small sealed room 9x20 and must occur in ONE HOUR.
For Benzo[a]pyrene, 222,000 cigarettes
"For Acetone, 118,000 cigarettes
"Toluene would require 50,000 packs of simultaneously smoldering cigarettes.
Acetaldehyde or Hydrazine, more than 14,000 smokers would need to light up.
"For Hydroquinone, "only" 1250 cigarettes
For arsenic 2 million 500,000 smokers at one time
The same number of cigarettes required for the other so called chemicals in shs/ets will have the same outcomes.
So,OSHA finally makes a statement on shs/ets :
Field studies of environmental tobacco smoke indicate that under normal conditions, the components in tobacco smoke are diluted below existing Permissible Exposure Levels (PELS.) as referenced in the Air Contaminant Standard (29 CFR 1910.1000)...It would be very rare to find a workplace with so much smoking that any individual PEL would be exceeded." -Letter From Greg Watchman, Acting Sec'y, OSHA, To Leroy J Pletten, PHD, July 8, 1997
WHAT! DILUTED BELOW PERMISSABLE LEVELS
By the way ASH dropped their lawsuit because OSHA was going to make a rule and that rule would have been weak and been the law of the land,meaning no smoking bans would ever have been enacted anywhere,simply because an open window or a ventilation system would have covered the rule.
Let me also tell you that the relative risk for shs/ets by the SG report of 2006 was a 1.19 ''EPA study is whats used to call it a carcinogen''......milks is a 2.43 and that glass of chlorinated water your about to drink is a 1.25 yet these things aren't determined to be a carcinogen....The gold standard in epidemiology is a 3.0....Now had the SURGEON GENERAL included 2 other shs/ets studys the relative risk for disease from shs/ets would have been nearer a.60-.70 meaning it would have a protective effect against ever getting disease.
But,what each of us has is years and years of exposure and the knowledge that our kids all grew up around shs and generations of others,yet we are here alive not dead from a lousy 30 minute exposure to shs as stanton glantz tries to claim.....thats another story and its just as crazy as all the rest of smokefree's claim about shs/ets.
Oh! have you heard the one about ''laugh'' thirdhand smoke or third hand drinking.
Like I said their claims border beyond that of any reasonable persons commomsence.
The next time you see a healthscare claim
consider the source.Especially if it comes from a government or non profit agency!
milkman
May 16, 2010 - 7:23 am EDTHey bicycle rider, you're worse than Mimi! Run for cover, the sky is falling! Hitler really didn't hate Jews! Texting and driving don't kill. Drugs do a body good. Nobama is the best President ever. Hillary Clinton is one hot mama. One thing for sure is: continue t wear your helment, as you cant afford any more brain damage!
Panacea
May 16, 2010 - 8:16 am EDTHe's baaacccckk!
Back with the same old laughable allegations and misrepresentation of science.
I find it interesting that the group he cites, Littlewood and Fennel, has no website to say who they really are. Extraordinary in this day and age. Ms. Fennel, in a letter, does not cite her credentials. Her letter (the one harleyrider cites) reads like a lawyer's brief. I have no doubt Mr. Fennel is an attorney, not a scientist. Of course, the letter is over 10 years old. Their lack of follow up and continuing presence shows them for what they are, shills for industry.
Nice try. Thanks for playing.
harleyrider1978
May 16, 2010 - 1:05 pm EDTSo you wont fight what they state..............I will accept your defeat.
Panacea
May 16, 2010 - 1:48 pm EDTNonsense. There is nothing to fight. Their claims are not credible on their face. Littlewood and Fennell are like you: a couple of blowhards with no reputable facts to hold up their silly claims.
You must enjoy making a fool of yourself; you do so much of it when you write on this issue. Well, I guess it's your right to look foolish. It certainly has made my morning entertaining.
flight105
May 16, 2010 - 2:04 pm EDTharleyrider1978 - you know you've got them by the short hairs when the only way they can respond is by stooping to personal ridicule and name-calling.
fishngjb
May 16, 2010 - 7:31 am EDTThis is all about our choices, and choices we as Americans are supposed to have. These employees are not forced to work in these bars and pool rooms, it's their choice. Also the complainers of the "law" being broke should choose to stay home, and allow the smokers to gather and enjoy their choice to be there. It is so sickening with no one being responsible for their choices that the government has to stick it's nose in to take over our choices. I am not a smoker but feel strongly that we need to join together and stop this "Hitler" attitude of our government. Booze, food, tobacco, cell phones, texting ALL may be harmful when used, but are all these things being taken away ? Anti-Tobacco people should stay home and not patronize businesses who allow smoking or find a bar that is natural, sterile, and organic OR open their own club. See how much business they get or how long it last. Quit the whinning and stay the hell out of a place if you don't like it. That's what choices are supposed to be about. We are all in jepordy of losing our rights that our ancestors fought so hard for. Are you so bored in your life that you have nothing good to do for your fellow man ?
Panacea
May 16, 2010 - 8:17 am EDTWhen the majority of establishments allow smoking, then workers in fact have no choice, not if they want a job. Waiting tables can be very good money if you hustle.
harleyrider1978
May 16, 2010 - 8:25 am EDTbefore the ban nearly 70% of venues were non-smoking.............now 100% so that means that worlers who smoked have no place now to work if we use your analogy and those places lost customer base because of the ban. A recent poll showed that over 50% of hospitality workers smoke.........so it doesnt take rocket science to see smoking bans are not just bad for freedom but for the cash bottom line too!
Interested
May 16, 2010 - 8:35 am EDT"Before the ban nearly 70% of venues were non-smoking . . ." What venues? Certainly not restaurants. Some may have been non-smoking, but not 70%. And of those restaurants that were non-smoking before the law went into effect, how many made the decision because they knew they would have to in the near future in order to comply with the new law?
As to your final statement, it does not take rocket science, but it does take evidence. As you have provided none, how do you come to the conclusion that the smoking ban is bad for the cash bottom line?
harleyrider1978
May 16, 2010 - 9:01 am EDTECONOMIC LOSSES DUE TO SMOKING BANS IN CALIFORNIA AND OTHER STATES
By David W. Kuneman and Michael J. McFadden
If California’s bar and restaurant margin-adjusted revenue growth had kept pace with its border states, its bar and restaurant revenue for 1998 would have been $36.5 billion, or $8.5 billion more than it actually took in. Over the time span of 1990 to 1998, California lost $34 billion based on (1/2 base X the height) calculations. This disagrees with our earlier estimate of $60 billion because these calculations take into account a slightly weaker overall economy in California than its border states. While directly comparable government tabulated figures do not exist for the years of 1999 to 2004, it would not be unreasonable to assume that these trends have continued and that California’s smoking ban has cost the state’s economy on the order of $75 to $100 billion since 1990.
harleyrider1978
May 16, 2010 - 9:02 am EDTAAPlace City Name Business Closed? Bus. Lost Tips Lost / Jobs Lost HOME
AK Anchorage Oscar's Place Restaurant 40% 3 I opened my door 13 years ago to give the common man a place to go. Now 3 years after the do gooders passed the smoking ban, my business still hasn't recovered, and I may have to close my doors forever.
AR Fayetteville Cafe Santa Fe Restaurant Closed 100% 100%
AR Fayetteville Casa Taco Restaurant Closed 100% 100% "Sales dropped off dramatically. We lost our late-night business ... a lot of people come in after the bars close."
AR Fayetteville Hoffbrau Bar/Rest Closed 100% 100% Before closing, The Hoffbrau reported a 50% drop in liquor sales due to the ban.
AR Fayetteville Ozark Brewing Co Brew Pub Closed 100% 100%
AZ Tempe Crocodile Cafe Restaurant Closed 100% 100%
AZ Tempe Pooch's Easy Street Billiards Pool Hall Closed 100% 100%
CA Bell The Lika Club Tavern 60%
CA Clearlake Oaks Dunkhouse Saloon Tavern 50%
CA Escondido Fireside Lounge Tavern 70%
CA Lakewood Grand Central Casino Casino 42% 15 Since the ban took effect in February, liquor sales are down 42 percent and food sales have dropped 25 percent. Fifteen employees have been laid off and another 40 to 50 jobs are in jeopardy.
CA Lancaster Calico Saloon Tavern 30% 5
CA Long Beach Daddy's Lounge Tavern 35% 3
CA San Luis Obispo Laurel Bowl Bowling Alley Closed 100% 100% 385 league bowlers quit when the smoking ban went into effect, with a loss of $200,000. Laurel Bowl had been in business for 37 years before the ban.
CA Santa Fe Rim Ram Tavern 75-90% Before the smoking ban, we would take in about nine-hundred dollars on Wednesday nights. The week following the start of the smoking ban we barely made three-hundred dollars. The next week we only made seventy-five dollars, and we made even less in the weeks following,"
CA Soulsbyville The Old Dog House Tavern Closed 100% 100%
CA Tulare Doherty's Tavern 66%
CA Tulare Marco Polo Lounge Tavern 80% "On nights where we allow our patrons to smoke, we make about $120 a night. Last Monday we didn't allow our customers to smoke. Our total sales were five dollars."
CA Willow Femino's Blue Gum Restaurant Closed 100% 100%
CANADA Acton Red Dog Cafe Restaurant Closed 100% 100%
CANADA Ajax BB's Bar & Grill Restaurant/Bar Closed 100% 100%
CANADA Ajax Chatts Restaurant/Bar Closed 100% 100%
CANADA Ajax Harp & Hound Restaurant/Bar Closed 100% 100%
CANADA Ajax Puk & Beaver Restaurant/Bar Closed 100% 100%
CANADA Ajax Raven & Firkin Restaurant/Bar Closed 100% 100%
CANADA Ajax Sword and Stone Restaurant/Bar Closed 100% 100%
CANADA Ajax Taps Restaurant/Bar Closed 100% 100%
CANADA Ajax The Arctic Restaurant/Bar Closed 100% 100%
CANADA Ajax Thirsty Monk Restaurant/Bar Closed 100% 100%
CANADA Alberta All rest, bar, bingo 40% Consumer prices are going to go up for menu items, Lindy Rollingson, president and CEO of the Alberta Restaurant and Foodservices Association, said yesterday. "There just isn't anywhere else to move."
CANADA Barrie Coffee Time Coffee Shop 50% 100%
CANADA Cambridge Bud's Place Tavern 23% 5
CANADA Castlegar Gardeli's Bar/Restaurant Closed 100% 100%
CANADA Chamberlain Ralph's Place Restaurant/ Diner 75% Jackie Bradley, Owner says, “There is no future here.”
CANADA Chatham Eightball VIP Sports Cafe Sports Bar 40% 2
CANADA Crescentwood Tubbys Pizza Pizza Parlor 20% 2
CANADA Dunnville nastys Sports Bar 37%
CANADA Edmonton Bingo Halls Charity 50% In the first 6 months of the ban.
CANADA Edmonton Epcor Café & Deli Café Closed 100% 100% "The place used to be packed with smokers every morning until the bylaw came in."
CANADA Edmonton Jimmy Ray's Sports Bar & Lounge Bar Closed 100% Business had been down 30 to 35 per-cent each month
CANADA Edmonton Pucks at Coliseum Inn Bar 18 jobs The bar is now closed on Monday and Tuesday nights.
CANADA Edmonton Sherlock Holmes Pub and The Rose & Crown Pub Bars 40% Manager Pat Tarbox reported loss. Tarbox's hubby butts up against smoke ban. It's hurting his bar business says man who was married to anti-smoking crusader.
CANADA Edmonton The Moose Factory Restaurant 35% Tom Goodchild said it's devastating, and had to lay off employees.
CANADA Fort St. John Alexander Mackenzie Inn Hotel 92% 16 "Since we were `beaten' into compliance by the WCB, our business has dropped in the lounge from $1,000 a day to $80. "
CANADA Gander Father's Place 40% My business is down 40 per cent and everyone's in the same boat. I haven't come across one person who hasn't lost revenue, so we have to do something. This is important to everyone right across the province.
CANADA Goose Bay Happy Valley Nightclub Closed 100% After the smoking ban, it was like somebody turned on a light. It was just nobody there – absolutely nobody, said Lethbridge.
CANADA Inuvik Inuvik Curling Club Private Club 66% The president of Inuvik's Curling Club predicts it will lose $40,000 by the end of the year, and says the town's smoking by-law is to blame.
CANADA Johnstown Bingo International 43 Charities Closed 100% Goodwin said the final straw was the province wide smoking ban.
CANADA Kingston Larry's Pit Stop Tavern 49% 1
CANADA Kitchener Mingles Coffee Shoppe Coffee Shop Closed 100% 100% Before Closing, Mingles saw a 45% drop in sales.
CANADA Markham Coffee Time Coffee Shop Closed 100% 100%
CANADA Midland Cellarman's Alehouse Tavern 35% Friday nights used to generate $2,400-$3,100 before the smoking ban. Since the ban those numbers dropped to $900-$1,400.
CANADA New Brunswick Various Places 24% Pubs and bars in New Brunswick suffered a 24% drop in liquor sales in the first month of a ban similar to the one passed in Ontario.
CANADA Country Various Places various www. pubcoalition. com/ Bars and pubs sales were reduced: 23.5% in Ottawa, 18.7% in London, 24.3% in Kingston and 20.4% in Kitchener.
CANADA Ontario Various Places 25% Sales at the average Ontario pub, bar and nightclub have fallen by 25% and 4,100 jobs have been lost in this sector.
CANADA Ontario Tourist Spending 7%
CANADA Oshawa Flying Squirrel Restaurant/Bar Closed 100% 100%
CANADA Oshawa Konfusions Restaurant/Bar Closed 100% 100%
CANADA Oshawa Micky Finns Restaurant/Bar Closed 100% 100%
CANADA Oshawa Queen's Hotel Restaurant/Bar Closed 100% 100%
CANADA Oshawa The Castle Restaurant/Bar Closed 100% 100%
CANADA Oshawa The Wall Restaurant/Bar Closed 100% 100%
CANADA Oshawa Winchester Arms (2 locations) Restaurant/Bar Closed 100% 100%
CANADA Ottawa Beacon Hill Arms Tavern Closed 100% 100% Dave O'Connor, who successfully ran Ottawa's Beacon Hill Arms pub for nine years, said the ban forced him out of business. "From September to February, we lost close to $80,000 in sales"
CANADA Ottawa Hemingway's Bar/Restaraunt 40% 6
CANADA Ottawa Sky Garden Restaurant Closed 100% 100% / 6 "It was 100% because of the bylaw. Sales dropped 50%. Our cups of coffee were down 400 to 500 a day, our meals 20 to 30 a day."
CANADA Owen Sound Beach Brothers Bar Closed 100% 100% There were only 3 bars in a city with almost 22,000, with a small college. This makes the count of bars at 2, with this historical building being built and used since 1887 as a hotel.
CANADA Pickering Melanie Pringles Restaurant/Bar Closed 100% 100%
CANADA Polo Park Branigan's Tavern Closed 100% 100% / 50
CANADA Prince Rupert Rupert Pub Tavern Closed 100% 100%
CANADA Portage la Prairie Royal Canadian Legion Branch No. 65 Club 30% “It’ll make a big hole in the community,” branch president Keith Hutchinson said.
CANADA Regina Casinos 33% To counter the impact of the ban, the gaming corporation increased advertising and hired more staff, resulting in a 14 per cent increase in expenses.
CANADA Riverton Sandy Bar Hotel Hotel Closed 100% 100% Rob Charrier said he was forced to close, had been open since 1947.
CANADA Saskatchewan Confederation Bingo Bingo Closed 100% I'm guessing they're sitting at home, having a cigarette at home and finding other forms of entertainment, said Randy Gudmundson.
CANADA Saskatoon Royal Canadian Legion Bar 50% He says even the non-smokers have stopped coming because they can't hang out with their smoking buddies.
CANADA St. Albert The Patch Tavern 70%
CANADA St. Thomas Burty Bob's Bar Closed 100% Daniels blamed inequitable enforcement of the city’s smoking ban.
CANADA Thunder Bay Empire Hotel Hotel 40% “I am doing the best that I can considering my limited space to work with to accommodate my customers and to help my business survive. It seems to me that our city council is not interested in supporting us in any way.”
CANADA Thunder Bay Kilroy's Sports Pub & Billiards 25% Strapped for cash, the business reduced its sponsorship of local sports teams, laid off staff and reduced business hours.
CANADA Thunder Bay Newfie's Pub Bar 20% “In my opinion, the city was very unfair in the first place to impose a 100 per cent no-smoking by-law without any concessions, options, or regard for the bar operators and our customers.”
CANADA Thunder Bay The Aurora Grill Bar & Grill Closed 100% 100% Doug Fraser and Cheryl Klause can’t compete with ban against Casino.
CANADA Thunder Bay Thunderbolts Swim Club Bingo Hall Closed 100% 100% Closed because of ban, no money now for the kids.
CANADA Tilsbury Mr. B's Restaurant Closed 41%
CANADA Tornoto Cobalt Tavern 50% "You build this business, and you're proud of it, and all of a sudden the city makes this blind decision...places like us get totally screwed."
CANADA Toronto Bovine Sex Club Tavern 50%
CANADA Toronto Elements Nightclub Closed 100% 100%
CANADA Toronto Elsewhere Bar & Grill Tavern 100% We cut staff early to save cost and boredom. The City of Toronto promised us a deluge of non-smokers who would be deliriously happy to visit us because we're non-smoking. Where are they?
CANADA Toronto Strathmore Bingo Bingo Hall Closed 100% 21 Closed for 2 months. "Net revenue in May was very low with each charity only receiving $45 per session they worked," said Mr. Brock. "This is compared to the (ore-ban) average of about $100 per session."
CANADA Toronto The Spotted Dick Taverm 60%
CANADA Vancover Bacchus Nightclub 100% 100% In its first two years, it regularly would close to its 275-person indoors capacity, Sorochan {the owner} says. As business dwindled, you'd be lucky to find 60 patrons on hand.
CANADA Wallaceburg Sam's Hotel Tavern 60-70 "(Business is down) probably 60-70 per cent (at night) and 90 per cent in the daytime."
CANADA Whitby Cannucksters Restaurant/Bar Closed 100% 100%
CANADA Whitby Chitchats Restaurant/Bar Closed 100% 100%
CANADA Whitby Otter and Firkin Restaurant/Bar Closed 100% 100%
CANADA Whitehorse Coffee Shop Coffee Shop Closed 100% 100% Owner sues over ban for 5.6 million.
CANADA Whitehourse The Coffee Bar Coffee Shop 50%
CANADA Winnipeg Happy Joe's Restaurant Closed 100% 100%
CANADA Yellowknife MacKenzie Lounge Tavern 80%
CO Greeley Red Garter Lounge Tavern 45%
CO Greeley Roasty's Steakhouse Restaraunt 60%
CO Greeley Union Colony Brewery Brew Pub Closed 100% 100%
CO Louisville Bart's Bar/Restaurant Closed 100% 100% Bart's had been in operation for nearly 30 years.
CO Pueblo Assorted Tavern Closed 100% "The smoking ban affected the bars in Pueblo quite drastically. We've had six to 10 bars close since the smoking ban started," said Chuck Chavez, owner of the Sunset Inn.
CO Pueblo Bruno's Beer Joynt Tavern Closed 100%
CO Pueblo Mugsy's Tavern Closed 100%
CO Pueblo Pepper's Tavern Closed 100%
CO Pueblo Silver Saddle Tavern Closed 100%
CO Pueblo Town Tavern Tavern Closed 100%
CT Bristol Tracie's Pub Tavern 40% My business has dropped about 30 to 40 percent since the smoking ban. I've spoken with a lot of bar owners in town and they all have the same problem.
CT Colchester Moriarty's Pub Closed 100% 100% After nearly two decades in business, Moriarty's Pub was done in by the ban on smoking, its owner said.
CT Cromwell Saw Mill Pub Restaurant Closed 100% 100%
CT Fairfield Bear and Grill Bar/Restaurant 30-40% "I used to close down at 1 a.m. Now I close down at 9:30. The next three hours are dead."
CT Hartford A-Vend, Inc. Vending 60% Hurt by the trickle down effect of the ban.
CT Meriden La Primavera Restaurant Closed 100% When the statewide smoking ban snuffed out cigarettes in his bar area last October, 80 percent of his business went up in smoke. The restaurant was one of the few family restaurants remaining in the city.
CT Montville Brown Derby Tavern 50%
CT New London Nowhere Café Restaurant 80% Diane Batte-Holmgren said business will only get worse as winter draws closer.
CT New London Sundowner Restaurant Restaurant 30% 2 He's laid off two employees and is asking waiters to double up on shifts.
CT Norwich Pinstripes Sports Bar Closed 100% 100%
CT Norwich Pinstripes Sports Cafe Sports Bar Closed 100% 100%
CT Old Saybrook Adreanas Restaurant Restaurant Closed 100% 100%
CT Stamford Rack N' Roll Pool Hall 30%
CT Wallingford T-Bowl Lanes Bowling 50% 50% "Income cut in half, that's a big chunk of my business" says Carmen Izzi.
CT Waterbury Bobby D's Café Bar/Night Club 60% Our day business is mostly blue collar with many contractors and factory workers who come in after work. 90 percent of the customers in my bar smoke.
CT Windsor Locks Cargo's Café Restaurant Closed 100% 100%
DE Bear Just Mugs Saloon Tavern 33%
DE Wilmington Back Stage Cafe Bar/Restaurant Closed 100% 100% / 20
DE Wilmington Coach House Bar/Restaurant Closed 100% 100% / 8
DE Wilmington Naamans Cafe Restaurant Closed 100% 100% / 8
FL Cape Coral Collier Lee Vending Vending Machines 40% N/A We have over 60 customer accounts in 4 counties all of which have shown losses of 25% to 60% since the start of the ban.
FL Cutler Ridge Old Cutler Oyster Company Restaurant Closed 100% 100% Has been fighting the ban since it went into effect.
FL Fort Walton Elks #1795 (Private Club) Lodge Private Club 40% 22% "Charity money is down 45%. Our Charities are Kids of Florida and the Veterans. That is who is really getting hurt the most by this!"
FL Ft. Pierce Elks Private Club 50% (Bingo "Our Charity money is down 50% or more over this time last year. We are going to be able to spend only about $5,000.00 this year on our Christmas programs vs. $12,000.00 plus last year. The Christmas programs include Salvation Army, Waterfront Mission, Sharing and Caring (food bank) and then we take needy families shopping for food, clothes and a few toys for the kids. We did about 17 families
FL Jupiter (and Miller's Ale House (35 Locations) After the law took effect July 1, 2003, the Ale House chain experienced the first decline in business in its 15-year history, said Dave Reid, vice president for operations. ...For the first five months of 2004 alcoholic beverages sales were down $2 million compared with January through May of 2003"
FL Lake Wales Cherry Pocket Restraunt 30% 30% Small business work so hard for their business, it is hard to believe the Goverment can just take it away without any thought at all.
FL Naples The Falls Restaurant Closed 100% 100% "We lost 70 percent of our income," Renzello said. "The law put us out of business." 90 percent of her customers were smokers.
FL New Port Richey Gulf Harbor Yacht Club Private Club 68%
FL North Fort Jerseys Sports Cafe Sports Bar 25% 20% / 4 Whatever happened to the individuals freedom to choose where you go and what you do in public?
FL Pensacola Beach Elks #2256 (Private Club) Lodge Private Club 20% 30% "We've lost 70 members because of the ban"
FL Plantation Elks #2273 (Private Club) Lodge Private Club 60% 60% / 1
FL Port Charlotte Melons Bar & Grill Bar/Restaurant Closed 100% 100% / 4 Before closing they experienced a 50% loss in sales and a 60% loss in tips becuase of the smoking ban.
FL St.James City Double Nichol Pub Tavern 10% 10% / 3
FL Tampa Toucans Bar & Grill 30-40% 50% / 3
FL Thonotosas Grandma's Kitchen Restaurant Closed 100% 100% / 5
FL Venice Bogey's Restaurant/Sports Pub >20%
FL West Palm Beach Zook's "It has almost put me out of business. We are down about 45 percent for each month," Zook said. "Our food sales were 48 percent of our business. Now they are down to 10 percent. A lot of people who had drinks with lunch or dinner are not coming in now. They can't eat here."
FL Wildwood Buddy's BBQ Restaurant Closed 100% 100%
GA State Huddle House Restaurant 75% Within the week those who meet there on a regular basis to drink coffee, smoke, converse and yes to eat have reduced by 75%.
IL Skokie Village Inn Sports Bar 37% 6
IRELAND Assorted 200 pubs pubs Closed 100% 100% The Vintners Federation of Ireland told an Oireachtas committee yesterday that 7,600 jobs had been lost in the hospitality industry since the ban’s introduction, while 200 pubs had also closed down.
IRELAND Dublin Bewley's Oriental Cafe Tea and Coffee Shop Closed 100% 100% The shop, located on Westmoreland St, had been in business since 1986
IRELAND Dublin Bewley's Oriental Cafe Tea and Coffee Shop Closed 100% 100% The Grafton Street Shop had been open since 1927.
IRELAND Dublin MacTurcails 20%
IRELAND Eyre Square Fibber Magees Closed 100% 100% ``We're damned if we do and damned if we don't,'' Lawless said {Defying the law}. ``We're either going to go out of business or be put out of business.'' Before closing the bar suffered loses of 66%
KS Lawrence Hereford House 40% 16
KS Lawrence The Meat Market Bar/ Restaurant Closed 100% 100%
KY Lexington Friends and Company Bar/Restaraunt 30% The restaurant has experienced the lowest revenue in the last 19 months.
KY Lexington Lynagh's Pub Bar/Restruant 40% "Smokers still come, but not as often and they don't stay as long. "
KY Lexington Maxwell's Tavern Closed 100% 100% Maxwells had been open for 14 years.
KY Lexington Nicholson's Cigar Bar Cigar Bar 100% 100% Owners of Nicholson's Cigar Bar say it didn't make sense to operate a smoke-less cigar bar
KY Tatets Creek Jackpot Bingo 50% The Tates Creek High School Marching Band stands to lose about $80,000 this year in bingo money.
MA Bradford Pockets Billiards Pool Hall 100% 100% Closed after 11 years!
MA Cambridge Bud's Place 23% 500%
MA Chicopee Falls Blue Room Cafe Tavern 25% The business has been open since 1936
MA Fall River Gold Mine Restaraunt Bar/Restaraunt 50% 50% / 2 "There should be places for both the smoker and nonsmoker. I do not smoke but you are killing our business!!! "
MA Hingham Aloha Tavern Closed 100% 100%
MA Marlboro Marlboro Cozy Cafe 60% 2 We had 5 employees, now have 3 and that includes me. If this is result of one month of the ban after 35yrs in business I may have to close my doors.
MA South Weymouth J.C. Grear’s Tavern Closed 100% 100% "Decimated after the ban."
MA South Weymouth J.C. Grear's Restaurant Closed 100% 100%
MA Springfield Blarney Stone Tavern 25%
MA Springfield City Line Cafe Tavern 50% "People are complaining about it. They're saying 'Why go out for a drink when I can buy a six-pack and sit at home?' It's really hurting us."
MA Weymouth Various Places 50% Owners told the Town Council ” Business is down 50 percent since the ban went into effect.
MD Bethesda Uncle Jed's Roadhouse Tavern 50% 70% / 2 ...Smaller establishments have seen total sales decline by an average of 30 percent during the week and 50 percent on weekends, according to Melvin Thompson, vice president of the Restaurant Association of Maryland
MD Gaithersburg Anchor Inn restaurant Closed 100% 100% Since the ban was implemented October 2003 Anchor Inn suffered a 40 percent loss in Keno, beer, wine, liquor and food sales.
MD Gaithersburg Buffalo Billiards Pool Hall 50%
MD Gaithersburg Buffalo Wings and Beer Bar/Restaurant 50%
MD Gaithersburg Gentleman Jim's Restaurant 40%
MD Gaithersburg J.J. Muldoon's Bar/Restaurant 20%
MD Gaithersburg Mrs. O'Leary's Restaurant and Pub 50%
MD Germantown Middlebrook Restaurant and Lounge Bar/Restaurant 50% "I'm so bitter today because I have worked too hard to keep this business going. It's just not fair."
MD Germantown Pelican Pete's Restaurant 60%
MD Olney Grand Marquis Caf‚ 30%
MD Olney Stained Glass Pub Tavern 30%
MD Poolesville Potomac Valley Lodge Lodge 17% 75% / 4 "I think in the future we'll have to close in the winter. We'll lay everyone off, let them collect unemployment for a few months and bring them back. They'd make more on unemployment."
MD Potomac Normandie Farm's Bar/Restruant 50% 2
MD Rockville Mark Timmons Tavern 20%
MD Rockville Silver Fountain Restaurant Restaurant 33%
MD Silver Spring Corner Pub Tavern 40%
MD Silver Spring Dietle's Tavern Tavern Closed 100%
MD Silver Spring Quarry House Tavern 70% New customers who come to the bar because it's smoke-free don't bring in the revenue that smokers did, she said. "They have one beer, a glass of water and something to eat," she said, whereas smokers tend to stay longer and eat and drink more alcohol.
ME Biddeford Nutshell Tavern Tavern Closed 100% 100%
ME Fryeburg Village Variety Closed 100%
ME Houlton Black Duck Lounge Tavern 70% "I've never seen it like this before. It's like all the customers just disappeared."
ME Rockland Waterworks Restaurant 50%
ME Waterville John Martin's Restaurant 25%
MN Bloomington Bloomington Park Tavern Tavern Closed 100%
MN Cloquet Grandma's Restaraunt 33%
MN Crystal VFW donations 46% Money lost to the smoking ban, she said, is money lost for local charities.
MN Duluth Perkins Restaraunt 26%
MN Long Lake Larry's Lounge Tavern Closed 100%
MN Mall of America Jillians hi-Life Lanes, Player's Bar & Grill, America's Original Sports Bar Closed 100% The smoking ban hurt all of us a lot more than we thought it would, said Andy Kostka, manager of the Hooters restaurant in the mall.
MN Mankato Embers Restaurant Closed 100% Cole talked about his decision stoically. His wife, Nicole, was less reserved. She couldn’t fight back tears while talking about how much she’s going to miss her co-workers and customers.
MN Minneapolis Breakaway Luke asks you to please come in!
MN Minneapolis Dusty's Bar Bar 40% People don't want to be outside. So, they don't come... You talk to the night staff and they feel a bigger crunch than I do. They're not happy at all." To help make up for lost business, Dusty's, like many other establishments in Minneapolis, has added outdoor patios where customers can smoke.
MN Minneapolis Gabby's Restaurant 26% 10 Owner Jeffrey Ormond is in second legal challenge. Ormond co-founded the Minneapolis Hospitality Association, a group of more than 60 bars and restaurants in Hennepin’s largest city.
MN Minneapolis Lion's Club Private Club 25% Michael Kuduk says the lost business is hurting charitable gambling as well.
MN Minneapolis Molly Quinn's Closed 100% Lamphear says in fact, trouble began for him the first day the law went into effect.
MN Minneapolis Porters Closed 100%
MN Osseo Duffy's Bar and Grill Bar 35% Duffy told the board that Anoka County, with its restriction-free smoking, is a welcoming sight to his customers and only five minutes away.
MN St. Cloud GW Coffee and Tobacco 50% Will likely close its East Side shop in October, around the business' 12th anniversary, owner Marilyn Held said.
MN list online Closed 100% 2,500 jobs 97 more places now listed as closed
MN Tobacco City Tobacco Shop Closed 100%
ND Moorehead Vic's Lounge 40% “I used to have a nice family crowd, and now I don’t anymore,” Fergen said.
ND West Fargo VFW Private Club 40%
NE Lincoln 25 separate Bars and Grills 27% Desperate for customers, downtown bars have begun discounting alcohol.
NE Lincoln Big John Billards Billiards Closed 100% 100% Anderson said Big John's is not for sale and is not available for lease. She said it would reopen if the smoking ban is overturned.
NE Lincoln Cheerleaders Bar & Grill Bar/Grill 30% "I will be very lucky to survive over the summer," Borgmann said.
New Zealand Dannevirke Masonic Hotel Closed 100% The smoking ban has devastated the lives of Mark and Raewyn Payne, owners of the Masonic, a business they took over two years ago. In the period prior to the ban, they had a thriving business, with two full-time and three part-time employees.
New Zealand Foxton Post Office Hotel Restaurant 66% New Zealand hotel has smoking bus out front
New Zealand Napier BAT Factory Closed 100% 170 jobs Napier Mayor Barbara Arnott said the loss of so many jobs would be difficult for any city to manage.
New Zealand Rotorua Lake House Hotel 50% Ian Frith and Teresa Scally’s story confirms the smoking ban in bars has struck hard upon some hotel owners and licensees, and is placing businesses in jeopardy.
NY Albany Blessed Sacrament Church Bingo Hall 50%
NY Albany Temple Israel Bingo Hall 50% According to Herb Holland, some of the regulars told volunteers that they would abstain from playing bingo, to protest the smoking ban. He hasn't seen them since.
NY Astoria Athens Cafe Restaurant 55% 10
NY Auburn Kim's Trackside Tavern Tavern 25% 25% Our local cayuga county health dept. continues to refuse to issue smoking waivers to businesses who have suffered a financial hardship.
NY Bath Hotel McDonald Hotel 70%
NY Bath Just One More Tavern 30%
NY Bellerose Finish Line Bar/Restaurant 40% 2
NY Binghamton Airport Inn Tavern 40% Evans says business has dropped at least 40-percent in the last year. Her liquor license expires next April, and she says, she doesn't plan on renewing it. The Airport Inn was a successful business for 18 years.
NY Binghamton Edigan's Restaurant Closed 100% 100%
NY Binghamton Mama Lena's Restaurant Closed 100% 100% Mama Lena's had been in business for more than 40 years.
NY Binghamton Yesterday's Restaurant & Lounge Closed 100% 100% Mike and Suzanne Gavazzi closed after 18 years.
NY Brewster The Roadhouse Tavern 40%
NY Broadalbin The Lodge at the Lake Inc Bar/Restaurant 50% 1
NY Bronx Fieldstone Recreation Billiard/Bar/Snacks 40% 1
NY Buffalo American Legion Post 1041 Bingo Hall 68%
NY Buffalo Amherst Bowling Center Bowling Alley Closed 100%
NY Buffalo B&G Bar and Grill Bar/Restaurant 30%
NY Buffalo Cabaret Tavern 40% 1
NY Buffalo Cook Bar & Grill Bar/Restaurant 40% 2
NY Buffalo Freddies Bar/Restaurant 50%
NY Buffalo Pocketeer Billiards Pool Hall 60-70% "The President says small business is the backbone of our country, NYS says screw small business just give us your money and your blood! All of it!!!!!!
NY Buffalo Susie's Corner Bar/Restaurant 23% 1
NY Buffalo The Royal Pheasant Restaurant Closed 100% 100% / 20 The smoking ban caused an instant 80 percent decrease in revenue. The Royal Phesant had been a family business for 58 years.
NY Buffalo Voelker Bowling Center Bowling Alley 30-40% The smoking ban hit us like an anvil, curtailing bowling activity by 30 to 40 percent and the bar business by 20 to 30 percent.
NY Camden Harter's Bar/Restaurant 40%
NY Camden Liberty Lanes Bowling 27%
NY Canandaigua Canandaigua Billiards Pool Hall 40%
NY Champlain Stumble Inn Tavern Closed 100% 100%
NY Cheektowaga Metropolitan Restaurant Bar/Restaurant 25% 2
NY Cheektowaga Peter K's Bar/Restaurant 35% 2
NY Chestnut Ridge Silo's Bar & Grill 35%
NY Cicero Damon's Party House Tavern 40%
NY Clay Richard's Ole Timer Bar/Restaurant 17% 1
NY Cold Brook Clifford's Tavern Bar/Restaurant 40%
NY Cortland Argyle's EasyStreet Tavern Tavern 12%
NY Cotati Friar Tuck's Restaurant 50% "Just as my establishment was beginning to flourish, I'm hit with this smoking ban which has killed my daytime business. People who used to stay for a couple of hours now only stay for one quick drink and leave."
NY Delhi Blinkey's Tavern Closed 100% 100%
NY East Randolph VFW Post 6533 Private Club 20% 25%
NY Elmira Heights American Legion Private Club 60% 50%
NY Elmira Heights Blondie's Tavern Tavern 25%
NY Endicott O's Place Tavern Closed 100% 100%
NY Endwell O's Place Closed 100% 100%
NY Falconer Chances Tavern Closed 100% 100%
NY Falconer Mel's Place Tavern 78% 100% After proving they had lost significant business, Mel's place was granted of the NY's few waivers. Their business immediately returned to the pre ban level, but the owners are worried about what will happen when the waiver runs out in a year.
NY Fredonia Barker Brew Pub Brew Pub Closed 100% 100% Closed after 10 yrs. in business
NY Frewsburg The Loft Tavern 30% "Our town has no attractions to draw in outsiders. We have only locals to rely on as patrons and 95% of them smoke. It will be worse when the snow sets in."
NY Fulton Fulton Ale House Tavern 75% Owner Joe Mancino may have to give up his business of 35 years.
NY Goshen The Wonderbar Tavern 50%
NY Hyde Park KayCey's Tavern 45%
NY Ithica Bowl-O-Drome Bowling Alley 14% 2 TThe business lost almost $30,000 and 110 bowlers during the 32-week league season... In the bowling alley's busiest months between January and May, Parkin saw a 14 percent decrease in activity comparing the same period in 2004 to 2003.
NY Jackson Heights La Bataclana Tavern Closed 100% 100%
NY Jamestown Coin Operated Amusements Vending Machines 20-50% Revenue from vending machines and games cut in half in many places.
NY Jamestown Elks Lodge (Private Club) Private Club Closed 100% Bingo, which funded their charitable work, is now completely shut down.
NY Jamestown Fountain Bowl Bowling Alley 40% N/A / 8
NY Jamestown Mr. D's Bar/Restaurant Closed 100% 100%
NY Jamestown Patsy's Lounge Tavern 50% / 2 "I have let 2 employees go and the other 3 have had their hours cut in half."
NY Jamestown Tommy's Place Bar/Restaurant Closed 100% 100%
NY Jamestown Windsor Ale House Tavern Closed 100% 100%
NY Johnstown Partner's Pub Bar/Restaurant 20% 1
NY Kennedy Crossroads Steak House Restaurant Closed 100% 100%
NY Lake George Lemon Peel Lounge 20% 2 "The ban has hurt, we now open later and close early."
NY Lakewood Ye Olde Anchor Inn Bar/Restaurant 18% 22%
NY Liverpool End Zone Bar/Restaurant 30% 1
NY Lockawanna, Woody's Pub Bar/Restaurant 25% 3
NY Long Island Olympian Sumont Inc Pool Hall/Bar/Rest 40% 3
NY Malone Knights of Columbus Bingo Hall 80%
NY Malone Seven's Bar Tavern 30%
NY Marcellus Village Tavern Bar/Restaurant 10%
NY Marcy Riverside Lanes Bowling 20% 2
NY Massena Delmar Sportsman's Tavern Tavern 30% 1 "We had hoped...nonsmokers who haven't been frequenting taverns due to the smoke-filled air would make up for at least some of the financial loss. Unfortunately, at least in our place, this has most definitely not happened. Our sales are at an all time low"
NY Massena Open Net Lounge Tavern 11%
NY Mattydale The Cam-Nel Tavern Closed 100% 100% The Cam-Nel had been in operation since 1952
NY Mayville Lakeview Hotel/Blues Rock Cafe Tavern 50% 50% On the first day of the ban, my tips and number of customers dropped 50%, and never came back up.
NY Middleport Middleport Inn Bar/Restaurant Closed 100% 100% / 13 "This damn state really knows how to kill people's dreams."
NY Middletown Whispers Cocktail Lounge Bar/Night Club 50% 90%
NY Monroe Brazen Head Pub Tavern 40%
NY Mt. Morrison Mills Race Restaurant Bar/Restaurant 40% 2.5
NY New Rochelle Dudley's Parkview Tavern Tavern 45% "From last summer to this summer, coming into this season, business is off by at least 45 percent. ... The bar is empty."
NY New York Aessa Bar/Restaurant 35% 6
NY New York Blarney Stone Bar/Restaurant 15% 1
NY New York Caffe on the Green Bar/Restaraunt 35% Bar business fell about 35 percent immediately after the ban. It has picked up since he added a "butt hut," an outdoor tent where patrons may smoke, but it's still less than before the ban.
NY New York Castle Heights Tavern Closed 100% 100%
NY New York Elbo Room Tavern Closed 100% 100%
NY New York Euzkadi Restaurant 50%
NY New York Fiddler's Green Tavern Closed 100% 100% We have just lost too many customers to this law, which I did not vote for, bar owners did not vote for, bartenders did not vote for, and the public did not vote for."
NY New York Harry's Hanover Square Bar/Restaraunt Closed 100% 100 "Overnight, we lost 60 percent of our evening bar trade. For the bar, it was the difference in profit and loss. Sales of expensive cigars had been almost as important as the sales of Scotch" Harry's had been in business for more than thirty years
NY New York Le Bar Bat Tavern Closed 100% 100%
NY New York Madame X Tavern 50%
NY New York Manhattan Beer Distributors Vendor 19% Stagnant sales have led to a 7% drop in beer demand citywide, and a 19% drop citywide to clubs.
NY New York Millennium Restaurant 40% 3
NY New York Nocturne Nightclub Closed 100% 100% / 70
NY New York O'Neill's Tavern 20% 3 "People who don't go to pubs just don't go to pubs. They said the ban would be good for business and for employees, yet my business is down and three good staff are out of work and unable to find another job...Most of my staff are smokers, and now they're being protected from second-hand smoke."
NY New York Pangaea Tavern Closed 100% 100%
NY New York Roesch's Tavern Closed 100% 100% Lauterborn, 60, said his bar, Roesch's in Queens, saw 40 customers nightly before the ban but only about five after it. He closed in September and says his children are supporting him while he looks for work. His tavern had been a 100 year old family owned business.
NY New York Slade Restaurant 40%
NY New York Sugoba Bistro Bistro Closed 100% 100% / 28 After 8 years of success in NYC, the NY smoking ban killed my Bistro in less than a year! In less than 3 month my business declined 37%. Within six months I was unable to meet payroll and I had to lay off 28 employees.
NY New York Swan's Tavern Closed 100% 100% / 7 "I felt bad laying off seven workers. Most of them had been with me for the five years Swan's was open. None of them had ever complained about secondhand smoke. "
NY New York Swift's Tavern 40% "It's absolutely killed us. This time last year the bar would be packed with the after-work cocktail crowd. Now they just take a bottle of wine or a six-pack to each other's apartments, where they can smoke."
NY New York Whiskey Ward Tavern 20% 2
NY Newburgh Golden Rail Ale House Tavern 25%
NY Niagara Falls The Press Box Tavern Closed 100% 100% The Press Box had been open for 45 years.
NY Ogdensburg The Web Tavern Closed 100% 100% Owners Janet and Anthony Doerr say the smoking ban destroyed their business.
NY Oneida Bec's Ivy Grill Bar & Grill 23% 3
NY Oneida Five Corners Bar/Restaurant 32% After 20 years of hard work this is what NY state does to us. Where are all these nonsmokers?
NY Oswego Buoy's Dockside Tavern Tavern 36.50%
NY Oswego Eagle Beverage Company Distributor 25% N/A "Deliveries to pubs and taverns have decreased substantially, greater than 25 percent."
NY Oswego Shamrock Tavern Tavern 50% "It's not right. Our livelihood is being taken away."
NY Parkville Champions Billiards Cafe Brew Pub/Pool Hall 33%
NY Port Leyden Central Hotel Bar/Restaurant 50%
NY Portville Maple Tree Inn Tavern Closed 100% 100% / 3
NY Potsdam Roy D Graves VFW Post 1194 Tavern 22%
NY Potville Cork and Bottle Tavern Closed 100% 100% Located near the PA border, this was literally a Mom and Pop business, run by a couple with no employees to "protect."
NY Queens Bingo Halls Bingo Halls 50% "If they want to spend their money, they want to be comfortable," said Susan Shkoditch, the volunteer who runs the bingo games for the charities. "They're mostly angry that their rights are being violated."
NY Remsen Taylor's Trackside Bar/Restaurant 50%
NY Rochester Christanis Bar and Grill Tavern 40%
NY Rochester Hancock's Hudson Tavern Bar/Restaurant 15%
NY Rochester Panorama Sports Bar/Night Club 50% 50% / 4 We are a small night club that was doing very well until the smoking ban hit us and it hit us very hard. We are very scared of our future, if any .
NY Rochester Salingers Tavern 35% 2
NY Rochester The Loop Lounge Bar and restaurant 30% I own a small local tavern and I have a 90% smoking cliental. Let me say it just sucks.
NY Rome Sammy G's Bar/Restaurant 50%
NY Sanborn Walmore Inn Restaurant/ Tavern Thank you for fighting the smoking ban.
NY Savannah D&S Diner Restaurant Closed 100% 100% Sales were down $3,000 in July 2002 compared to July 2001. Hardest hit were on Friday nights and Sunday mornings.
NY Scottsville Chili American Legion Post 1830 Private Club 70%
NY Sloan Unique Lounge Bar/Restaurant 40% 4
NY South Dayton, Rough Kutts Tavern Tavern 21% 1
NY Southport George & Shirl's Tiny Tavern Tavern 41% In October 2002, the bar made $6,000. This past October, after the ban went into effect, they made just $3,500,
NY Springville Pocketeer Billiards South Pool Hall Closed 100% From the Owner: "Pocketeer Billiards South is now officially closed due to the Hitler like laws the NYS. Politicians have enacted! NY continues in its efforts to drive business out to other states. I like many others have now chosen to leave after living here 58 years."
NY Staten Island Sharkey's Sports Bar and Grill Sports Bar 60%
NY Steamburg Coldspring Volunteer Fire Dept. Tavern 50% 75% / 1 The fire department owns the bar. Money from the bar buys equipment for the fire department. The income has been cut in half. This money buys new ambulances, trucks, gear ect. Remember, this all volunteer. Without the bar money we are going to have to rely on the town for revenue. You may lose your house or even someone's life without the money for the equipment.
NY Suffern Ireland's 32 Tavern 50%
NY Sunnyside Caseys Pub Tavern 35% 1
NY Syracuse Barrie's Tavern Tavern 40%
NY Syracuse Coleman's Irish Pub Bar/Restaurant 19% 4
NY Syracuse Doc's little Gem Diner 27% 10 "We fought tooth and nail and won a local County victory, only for the state to turn it over to a complete ban."
NY Syracuse Dodesters Tavern 20% "My business is down 20% from the same period last year, even though I'm now open three more hours a day and I didn't have a kitchen then."
NY Syracuse Nibsy's Pub Bar/Restaurant 18%
NY Syracuse Rafferty's Bar/Restaurant 35% 2
NY Syracuse Syracuse Brigadiers Bingo Hall 61% "The hall was losing about $60,000 per month in net income for the past three months because of the smoking ban."
NY Syracuse Thompson Road Tavern Bar/Restaurant 25%
NY Syracuse Tommys Park Place Tavern 40%
NY Syracuse Viva Debris Comedy & Magic Club 30 30%
NY Tonawanda Slick Willie's Pool Hall 25%
NY Troy Celtic Cultural Organization Bingo Hall 30-35% "From July 25 through Nov. 1, we are down about $12,000 from the same period last year."
NY Troy Holmes & Watson's Tavern 30%
NY Utica The Dog House Bar/Restaurant 28%
NY Utica Varick Restaurant Inc Bar/Restaurant 35%
NY Utica, Shorty's Sports Bar & Grill Bar/Restaurant 30%
NY Wallkill Desperado's Tavern 90% "I can count on my fingers the people who don't smoke who come in here. The regulars say they won't come."
NY Watertown Brown Shanty Tavern 20% 1
NY Wellsburg Village Tavern 50%
NY West Seneca Southgate Lanes Bowling Alley/Bar 55% 7
NY Wheatfield The Alps Restaurant Closed 100% 100%
NY Wheatfield The Meeting Place Restruant/Tavern Closed 100% 100%
NY Wilson Jean's Bar & Grill Tavern 26%
NY Binghamton Mama Lena's Italian American Restaurant Closed 100% 100%
NY Binghamton Valentine's Neighborhood Tavern & Grill Closed 100% 100%
NY Buffalo Jimmy Mac's Bar & Grill Closed 100% 100% "We are out of business, laid off 35 employees..... We went from making a steady living for 24 years to losing about $100,000. per year compliments of the smoking ban. The government figures are lies. Tell your friends who own bars that if the ban goes in they might as well pack up and leave." - Rick Naylon
NY Holland Holland Hotel Bar/Restaurant 45% My wife and three children (8, 4 & 2) have used all of our savings to supplement the business after the ban." - Mark Mazurek, Owner
OH Centerville Bill's Donuts Donut shop 20%
OH Centerville Cork and Bottle Carryout Lunch counter 25%
OH Centerville Thirsty Dog Grille & Brewery Closed 100% General manager, Bill Burns: A direct result of the city's smoking ban that went into effect April 4
OH Columbus Ann and Mike's Main St. Tavern Tavern 50% "This is all my husband and I do for a living. This is it," she says. Saying the smoking ban is destroying her profits. "I rang $37 on a Tuesday. That's from 10am to 230am," Leslie said. "I've cut all my vendors in half."
OH Columbus Coin-Op Vending Vending 15% Cigarette sales are down 50%. They report the bars outside of the Columbus ban are doing record business.
OH Columbus Fitzwillys Bar Judy Browning, owner, said she is losing customers to private clubs, such as the Moose and Elks, which already are exempt from the policy. "As long as cigarettes are legal, please allow the freedom of choice," she pleaded. "As much as the loss of income affects us, it will affect city and state revenue, too."
OH Columbus Julian's Restaurant/Bar Closed 100% Owner Julian Sanfillipo says the smoking ban is to blame for the decline, and eventual death of his business.
OH Columbus Kacys Sports Bar & Grille Tavern 50% "Kacy's Sports Bar and Grill has room for 300 customers, but now, it's virtually empty."
OH Columbus Maximillions Closed 100% "We closed the doors on July 22, 2005."
OH Columbus Mulligan's Sports Pub Bar 50% They were the first business charged with violating the ban.
OH Columbus Sinbad's Show Bar 90% "I don't know what to do, we've been in business for 15 years." Ron Polster, owner, said he has been losing both customers and employees to taverns in Reynoldsburg and Gahanna, which do not have indoor smoking policies.
OH Columbus Somewhere Else Tavern 3 "I feel bad. I've let three bartenders go," Tim Cashin says. "I'm seeing revenue loss of $1200-$1500 a week."
OH Columbus Sycamore Café Tavern Closing 100% 100% "After 42 years, the citywide smoking ban, in effect, will result in the closure of our establishment." Ron and Marilyn Stone.
OH Columbus Varsity Club Rest/ Bar Has lost business, especially during happy hours -when about half of the patrons used to smoke -said manager Laurie Watkins.
OH Columbus WK Vending Vending 15-25% We supply to neighborhood taverns everything for coin operated amusements, says Fowler. "Our bottom line is actually starting to drop."
OH Toledo Adam's Place Tavern Closed 100% 100%
OH Toledo Arnie's Eating & Drinking Saloon Restaurant/ Bar Arnie Elzey was one of the main proponents of a successful effort to modify Toledo's smoking ban.
OH Toledo Bait Shop Bar & Grill Closed 100% 100%
OH Toledo Blue Jeans Tavern Closed 100% 100%
OH Toledo Consaul Tavern Tavern Closed 100% 100% Consaul Tavern had been in business over 53 years.
OH Toledo East Broadway Nightclub Nightclub 50% "From the get-go I've lost business. I've lost 50 percent -- everybody's losing money."
OH Toledo East Broadway Nite Club Night Club Closed 100% 100%
OH Toledo Elbo Room Pizza Parlor/Tavern 25% 2
OH Toledo End Zone Electronics Tavern Closed 100% 100%
OH Toledo Fat Tuesdays Tavern Closed 100% 100%
OH Toledo Jordan's Place Tavern Closed 100% 100%
OH Toledo Laskey Lounge Tavern Closed 100% 100%
OH Toledo Max's Diners (2 locations) Restaurant Closed 100% 100% The Kaminskis say they tried to contact the city several times last year to see if they could get some help.
OH Toledo Ottawa Lanes Bowling Closed 100% 100% “He was so drastically impacted by the smoking ban in Toledo.”
OH Toledo Prime Time South Night Club Closed 100% 100%
OH Toledo Rack Time Billiards Pool Hall Closed 100% 100%
OH Toledo Ragtime Ricks Tavern Closed 100% 100%
OH Toledo Rooster Inn Brew Pub Closed 100% 100%
OH Toledo Shamrocks Tavern Closed 100% 100%
OH Toledo The "In" Zone Tavern Closed 100% 100%
OH Worthington Kacy's Sports Bar 50% "Kacy's Sports Bar and Grill has room for 300 customers, but now, it's virtually empty."
OR Corvallis The Peacock Bar/Restaraunt 40% Connor owned the Peacock for years - and says it was the ban that caused him to sell the bar. He says business gross fell from $1.5 million in 1997, the year before the ban went into effect, to $900,000 last year.
OR Corvallis The Peacock (New Owner) Bar/Restaraunt 50% 36
OR Eugene Bliss' Steak Ranch Restaurant Closed 100% 100% Closed after 32 years in business
OR Eugene Doc's Pad Tavern Closed 100% 100% / 24 "Let's face it, the economy is horrible. But for us specifically, the smoking ban was the knockout punch." The Olsen family had owned Doc's for 16 years.
OR Eugene Max's Tavern Tavern Closed 100% 100%
Scotland Fun Pub Pub Closed 100% 100% Billy Laing said he would have to look at cuts after a "drastic" reduction in takings.
Sweden Country Svenska Spel State Owned Gaming 2% Ban hits Svenska Spel's profits
TX Coppera's Cove Grant's Bar and Grill Uptown Cafe Closed 100% 100%
TX Corpus Christi Katz 21, P.O.E.T.S, Q Pub Taverns 36% All plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the city of Corpus Christi. They asked a federal judge to temporarily suspend the ban, partially because of lost revenues.
TX Dallas Matt's No Place Restaurant Closed 100% 100% Business simply dried up, restaurateur Matt Martinez said, after the City Council enacted a smoking ban in restaurants and other public places. "I just got fed up," said Martinez, "You work to get a clientele and build your business, and then the city comes and takes it from you."
TX Round Rock China One Restaurant Closed 100% 100%
TX San Antonio Good Time Charlie's Restaurant 30%
TX Victoria Ramsey's Restaurant Restaurant 25% Reaves said the city's timing on enacting the ban was not good. "They should have waited until after the holidays," he said. "This will kill the restaurant industry."
UK Congleton George Pub 35% Landlady Lynn O'Connell stubbed out the ban after the losses. The award she'd been given by Congleton's Mayor Baxendale was then taken away by a council environmental officer.
WA Bellingham Horseshoe 12%
WA Bellingham Waterfront Restaurant 9%
WA Clarkston Hogans 30%
WA Clarkston Hogan's Restaurant 30% Owner Tony Salerno says customers tell him bluntly they are going to Idaho bars, where smoking is still legal.
WA Clarkston Smitty’s Barrel 60% 4
WA Clarkston Smitty's Barrell 60%
WA Everett White Elephant Bar & Grill Inc. Restaurant 75% 2 We are a 54 year old business and we are going broke over the new law forced upon us business owners in Washington state.
WA Kent Inn Between Tavern 40%
WA Okanogan The Club 29%
WA Olympia The Spar 30%
WA Oroville Yo Yo's Restaurant 16%
WA Pullman Munchy'z 30%
WA Republic Madonna's Bar & Grill 13%
WA Seattle Gim Wah 35% Nena Tyson says restaurant hurt too.
WA Seattle Highlander Tavern Tavern 30% Patty Hutchison says her outdoor tent was taken away too.
WA Seattle Mecca Cafe 40%
WA Seattle Mickey's Bar & eatery 35%
WA Seatttle Tini Bigs 17%
WA Teninio Powder Keg 27%
WA Tonasket Tonasket Saloon 25%
WA Wenatchee Trav's Restaurant 30%
WA White Salmon The Elkhorn Bar & Grill 18%
WI Appleton Various Places 65% "After only one month with a ban."
WI Madison Ole 'N Rick's North Side Inn Closed 100% Terry Olson, co-owner of Ole 'N Rick's North Side Inn in Madison, said business is down 60 percent and he started cutting back shifts for three or four bartenders Monday.Owner Terry Adkins warned the City Council this would happen
WI Madison Tip Top Tavern Tavern It's terrible, absolutely terrible, said Cal Beecher, owner of the Tip Top Tavern. "I've been here 32 years. It's going to close me down."
WI Madison VFW Canteen Tavern Closed 100% Saying its clientele had mostly vanished into clean air.
WI Madison Wiggie's 30% Dave Wiganowsky, "By implementing this ban, the city has kicked the spokes out of my wheel that I had spinning very nicely for 25 years."
WI Wausau Diamond Dave's Restaurant Closed 100% Owner Steve Frazier blames the ban.
WV Charleston Mulligan's Restaurant/Bar Closed 100% 100% David Reynolds said that staff members "went to work Tuesday and they were closed.”
WV Huntington Calamity Café Restaurant Closed 100% 100% The restaurant cited the smoking ban as hurting business and a reason to close.
harleyrider1978
May 16, 2010 - 9:03 am EDTYou want more business closures due to smoking bans,I got em!
Panacea
May 16, 2010 - 11:00 am EDTDon't bother.
Many studies have been done on the economic impact of smoking bans. They find no negative impact. I don't know where you got their numbers, but you haven't proven the reason these businesses closed was simply the smoking ban. One must also consider that most small business owners do not have solid business plans and close within 3-4 years. A list, regardless of how lengthy, does little to refute a properly conducted study.
Eriksen M, Chaloupka F (2007). "The economic impact of clean indoor air laws". CA Cancer J Clin 57 (6): 367–78. doi:10.3322/CA.57.6.367. PMID 17989131
Scollo M, Lal A, Hyland A, Glantz S (2003). "Review of the quality of studies on the economic effects of smoke-free policies on the hospitality industry". Tob Control 12: 13–20. doi:10.1136/tc.12.1.13. PMID 12612356.
Bars and Restaurants Thrive Amid Smoking Ban, Study Says 29 March 2003, The New York Times
Interested
May 16, 2010 - 11:04 am EDTI didn't bother to verify any of harley's evidence. I get the impression he/she prefers quantity to quality.
MsCitizen2
May 16, 2010 - 9:07 pm EDTPanacea - That Scolio & Lal (Victoria Health Systems, Australia) "Economic Impact" study you cited, which was contracted by Stanton Glantz, (one of the world's richest "Tobacco Control" Profiteers) is a STEAMING PILE ... and I'll tell you why.
I have read this "study" in its entirety.
Ms.s Scolio and Lal got their "no economic impact" result from numbers derived from a certain New England State: one from which I proudly hail. Since most of my family still live there, I visit often. And I know when there were smoking bans there, and when there were not.
Please note the date of the "study" PUBLICATION - 2003.
Which means Scolio and Lal's data was in fact collected during a period of time when, any "smoking bans" that existed there, were ENTIRELY LOCAL! But their FIGURES - both "before and after" figures - were Restaurant Sales Tax proceeds - for the ENTIRE STATE. And during the time that these so-called "respectable scientists" mined their figures, both smokers and non-smokers had a "choice" about where to take their business.
Scolio and Lal compared statewide Massachusetts sales tax receipts, when only some towns had bans, to statewide sales tax receipts, some time later, when again - only SOME towns had bans. Of course there would be no evidence of business loss! The smokers were moving around WITHIN the same State! And whenever I visited there, I did the same.
The Massachusetts STATE WIDE Ban did NOT go into effect --- until... OMG, July of 2004!
See: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5370899
Nowhere in their study did Scolio and Lal differentiate, township by township, what revenue receipts emanated from which locale, to compare them as smoking vs. nonsmoking tax receipts..EVER! Because when the mined their data smokers Always had a Choice ... to move their patronage toa more "friendly" locale.
But when Glantz & Co. started peddling this paid-for "finding" around to other State Assemlies ... Massachusetts DID in fact, have a ban.
I know, because I saw it the Scolio and Lal study submitted as a consideration paper offered to support a public ban to my own State Assembly, in 2005. While "anti-tobacco" lobbyists further told lawmakers, that "business owners won't mind a ban - in fact, they might profit from it!"
So hapless legislators in states targeted by the tobacco nannies after Mass. went smoke-free were handed this statistical pile of crap as "evidence" ... that, as you put it - smoking bans have "no economic impact." Which, is a steaming lie.
Not only do local neighborhood bars suffer, but ritzy places that once offered dinner dancing or music, can no longer afford that overhead. Bingo halls become deserted. Diners lost a big part of their late night patrons here, and lots of bowling alleys closed. The choices for everyone, in fact, disappear or change.
So, Question:
Where are all those late night, "last call" patrons in the "ban" states, who just LOVE a smoke-free bar??
Answer: At home - with their kids safely tucked in bed.
Thus, "mom & pop" businesses like those in the long list that harleyrider supplied to you, ARE "No More!"
And their former owners, (and former employees), are calling in for UE checks (for as long as those may have lasted) ... while some 20% of their former patrons, are effectively social outcasts who are shuttered up in their homes... by the choice that has been left to them ... where they can drink (more cheaply) and smoke - in peace.
Far too many of those once local businesses have completely disappeared and leaving practically nothing but national "chain" restaurants to blight our local landscapes. Who survive because the CEOs of "chain" restaurants could spread the losses across a broader geography - like smoke-friendly North Carolina - that is likely to change... if history is any indicator. Because the "Tobacco Control" is loaded - with smokers' "sin taxes" and the benevolence of so-called "charitable" organizations (like the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation) who are stuffing their pocket$. J&J (RWJF's parent company) makes beaucoup bucks selling nicorette, nicoderm and (suicidal) Chantix, whenever you guys manage to make public smoking a legal sin - and they are happy to hire a PR army to "manage" public opinion. Guys like you will just move your mouse to the next State's victims when North Carolina falls, and continue to collect your fat paychecks, while the locals are left to suffer in your wake. It's like strip mining - only the victims in this case, are people.
So Panacea, you can keep on proselytising to the unwitting readers of North Carolina that a smoking ban will not shutter the doors of their favorite family-owned hot spot or landmark, ... because, as your likely bosses - Stanton Glantz and John Banzhaf - know full well ... a lie told often enough - becomes "the truth."
And just keep on calling your FELLOW CITIZENS - who happen to enjoy a leaf that actually built this colony - "dirty" and "stupid" ... with your typically unabashed impunity. Because there are presently no laws on the books that liken my own social "minority" to those who have already regained their civil protections... to ASEMBLE with their peers, or to serve whom they choose. Most times, you will not be called out for it - because your army of public relations prohibitionists, are not required to be "polite" to us, under any force of law. Not yet.
Nor will this website's edicts against posting vulgar, defamatory, or inflammatory language on these boards, likely be enforced; not, that is, if you're talking about a smoker. Because this corporate agenda is well cloaked, beneath the false masks of "public safety" and self-righteous "benevolence" - while my personal dignity is impugned, and my very citizenship is damaged.
But with each new ban Segregation returns to America - and our restless ranks grow.
And we will continue to expose your corporate agenda, and its lies, where ever we find that you have been paid to lurk. We will let our non-smoking cousins, and friends decide - whose opinions, or freedoms, are more to be valued. Let the people decide with whom, and when, they will congregate; not some rent-seeking corporate/fascist conspiracy.
That's one of the primary liberties our Constitution was drawn to guarantee.
Panacea
May 17, 2010 - 8:12 am EDTThe Scollo study is a meta-analysis, that is, a study of other studies. And what they studied was not necessarily the impact of legislated smoking bans, but of no smoking POLICIES. The studies examined were all in peer reviewed journals, meaning the original studies passed a rigourous process by fellow scientists as to the validity of their methodology and the of their conclusions. The Scollo study itself underwent peer review before publication.
What they found in their analysis was that no smoking policies in the hospitality industry either had no impact on the business, or a positive impact. The studies that showed a negative impact were all funded by the tobacco industry, revealing a bias that lessens their certainty as reliable.
I see nothing in this study to question as far as its validity goes; it does not attempt to evaluate economic impacts in the way you state. I urge you to read the study for yourself.
Please note that I did not call anyone dirty or stupid. I called the habit dirty and stupid.
I'm curious as to your accusation of a "corporate agenda". Where do you come up with this accusation? What corporate interest wants to see smoking banned? That's an astonishing accusation, and you do not support it. Name this corporations. Otherwise, I'll file this into "paranoid conspiracy theorist" in the circular file.
Those who post here regularly know I am a nursing instructor at a local community college.
And the consensus among most of the non smokers has been that the ban is a good thing that benefits their ability to enjoy public accommodations like bars and restaurants. There are a handful of non-smokers who've supported smokers, but very few.
Thanks for playing.
MsCitizen2
May 17, 2010 - 5:56 pm EDTPanacea - Thank you for "playing." But this issue is no game from the view of corporate profiteers, class action lawyers, dubious statisticians, money-hungry health associations, and the army of PR harpies who are employed by "Tobacco Control." Nor is it an amusing pastime for those Americans, like myself, who have become complete social lepers in the eyes of an unwitting society. A society that has drunk the poison "kool-aid" so regularly served to them by the carpetbaggers who are "tobacco control."
I did give you some of the key corporate connections to this "social engineering" scheme in the post above, but I'll be glad to spell it out for you.
In the late 90s, some enterprising class action lawyer/s (John Banzhaf, III to name a primary player), went to the big cig companies and said: "Say, the States are shelling out for free health care for all those indigent smokers that live within their borders, and we think you might have some deep pockets we can pick on issues of "product liability." We think you and your product liability insurers should sit down with us and hammer the issue out; and if any State would like to get on the gravy train with us, we'll devise a way to ABSOLVE you and your insurers of your product liability issues, and keep private citizens from suing you for the deaths of their smoking relatives, if we can just devise a "legal" plan to get everybody on board together." (Everybody, that is, but the smokers who are compelled to buy their products, and who were never invited to the conference table!)
And so, a back-door deal was struck between these enterprising class-action lawyers and Big Cig, and "The Master Settlement Agreement" (MSA) was born. (Circa 1998) The "Agreement" provided that any State that would but "sign on" to the MSA, would be obligated to TAX their resident tobacco users at a hefty quarter-per-pack (or more) - and then SPLIT the windfall, with an emerging group of "health nannies" who would use the money to advertise AGAINST the manufacturers' products, and raise "public awareness" about the "dangers" of smoking. (Because Panacea, as someone in the health care industry, certainly you would know, that it is ONLY smokers who are penniless, sickly, and without health care in this country! But ... I digress.) The "payback" for the tobacco manufacturers would come with the guarantee that: 1) no one could sue the the tobacco companies for "product liability" ... for selling such a "dangerous" product (which could save their insurers billions in light of a recent case where the family of a lady named "Rose" got an eyepopping judgment); and 2) neither could the States. (Affter of course, Mr. Banzhaf had pointed out that they could possibly recoup expenditures for "smoking related" health care - at his direction.)
In turn, Big Cig would agree to DISBAND their professional business associations, curtail their T.V. advertising, and cease doing any "research" which might be seen to promote their products (so your typical "anti-accusation" that some "study" was funded by tobacco companies, is a tired and blatant lie, for anything that might have been initiated POST 1998). Manufacturers further agreed to avoid assisting their product patrons to freely enjoy their products or defend the use of these completely legal - and highly taxed - products. Thus began the ridiculous march to higher and higher tobacco taxes, on a nearly annual basis, which, according to "tobacco control" would serve to "discourage" users from indulging in their pleasure, while conveniently stuffing the coffers of the insidious tobacco control engineers.
Another part of the MSA provided that any person or entity that makes "contributions" to the "charitable" work of Tobacco Control, would find themselves in the good graces of Uncle Sam; and could deduct such contributions from their obligation to our gov't, come tax time. Thus entered OTHER "suddenly interested" corporate behomoths, who found that "donations" (mostly "in kind") of their "cessation products" to the tobacco control nannies and their help/quit offices, not only fomented long-term sales of their own (expensive and UNtaxed products), but created a larger market for their profitable pharmaceutical cessation brands... especially if/when those "quit" entities were encouraged to foment the kind of "public service" (or "back-door") ADVERTISING that no CORPORATE interest could Ever "get away with" in this country. You know the type - a scene where Mommy leaves her 5 year old alone in a busy railway station because she "died early" from smoking; or the graphic vivisection of some "foolish smoker's" clogged or discolored body parts ... Just the kind of daytime TV that would send smokers running for the aforementioned pharma "quit" products, or cause their nearest and dearest to start begging them to do so!
Then these same benevolent Pharmas found, that when legislators could be convinced that the "majority" of their constituents would applaud "smoke free workplaces" States that enacted public prohibition REALLY brought the cash into their registers. So "tobacco control" started to insist upon "certain provisions" in these public "clean air" laws, that would effectively arm-twist smokers into quitting ~ or suffer banishment from all of "polite" society. No private club, and no senior citizen or veterans' hospital domicile, would be immune from the dictates of the tobacco nannies ... And GOD FORBID anyone should bring up the subject of "modern ventilation" systems - which can pump fresh air into a 5 mile deep mine shaft, but couldn't possibly clear a bar or party hall of smoke! And the better TC got at lobbying (or hounding and targeting) legislators, sales began to soar for the "quit" pharmas.
So by means of smokers' taxes, which the MSA States "split" with the tobacco control advocates - and the pharma "freebies" they received for their "charitable" work - TC became a major force. In fact, John Banzhaf, III got so cocky on his cut of the MSA money, that he tried to sue OSHA in a U.S. District Court (in 1999) to make it declare "second hand smoke" as a "health risk!" (He was about to lose that case when the the Judge told him that his "meta-analysis" studies had obviously been "cherry picked" (to make the "science" fit the policy??) and were therefore, invalid in proving risk. So Banzhaf withdrew the suit, and took it to the "court of public opinion" instead. TC then sent paid lobbyists to State Legislature after State Legislature, urging those lawmakers to completely ban the use of tobacco in private restaurants and bars, and other "workplaces" and, even though lobbying by "charities" is supposed to be "LIMITED" By force of Law... TC started to prevail... Using some of the SAME "bogus" ETS representations and statistics, that had been discredited by the U.S. District Court! (And still promulgated today.) Oh, BTW, did I mention that John Banzhaf, III, Esq. is the founder and CEO of ASH?
TC then decided they had enough money to get the WHO on board, and began to spread its mission (and grow its wealth, using these same tactics) in other countries!
However, backing up a bit: one pharma in particular, caught on fire with the potential of this "anti-tobacco" agenda, and was not satisfied to limit their profiteering to "tax breaks." After shelling out literally MILLION$ to "tobacco control" The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation ("charitable" arm of Johnson & Johnson - and makers, and/or licensees, of Nicorette, Nicoderm and, potentially deadly, Chantix) - decided to cut out the "middlemen" and go for the gusto! They didn't "donate" to, but actually instituted "The Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids" ... so now they could peddle their propagandist product advertising directly, take all of the tax breaks (and untaxed sales profits) directly, and ("for the children"), are allowed to inculcate kids at school, and then send them home to their smoking parents, to become corporate nags for nicoderm.
I invite you to go to www.rwjf.org and click on "grants." Within that section, use their own search engine to find the word "tobacco" to search for their many, many, "charitable" grants. You will find that million$ upon million$ have been "donated" towards controlling the use of tobacco by the RWJ Foundation, since the inception of the MSA. (And many of us believe that this is a "pared down" revelation in these pages, as rwjf has "cloaked" the obvious at this website, since many angry smokers have become their regular visitors.)
So ... tobacco companies don't "fund" scientific research to promote their products - they're not allowed to, under the MSA! And the scientific and legal teams who work with (or actually founded) the tobacco control movement, don't owe any scientific integrity, or "truth in advertising" to the public, which they chronically target with their overstated positions; because they cloak their gradiose personal profiteering under the guise of beng a "charity." In fact, TC entities regularly pay struggling newspapers across this country to print "news releases" in order to keep their agenda in the public eye... and you might be hard-pressed to find any printed opinions that are contrary to the mantra that TC peddles, because of this.
TC also pays folks like you, who might be affiliated with the American Heart Association, the American Lung Association or the AMA, and asks them to attend hearings before local and state legislative entities - as "hired guns" who will repeat the corporate script (which makes you so very recognisable to us!); and which further serves to shroud their corporate trail, and gives "credence" and respect to their agenda.
But calling people stupid and dirty because you might feel uncomfortable around them was supposed to have gone "out of fashion" in this country in the 60s. And claiming that sidestream smoke is "dangerous to others" really flies in the face of, not only solid scientific "evidence" to the contrary, but "common sense" as well. Do you allow your kids to stand by a campfire? Or to breathe the exhaust from their schoolbus? (Really!?)
This is why TC hates and disparages the findings of Dr.s Enstrom & Kabat, who did the longest running study on the non-smoking wives of smokers, and who found "no statistical significance" to the claim that (not brief) but CHRONIC ETS exposure could cause increased health risks to those wives - and the study spanned 39 years!
And TC's regularly unsubstantiated health risk claims, are also constantly refuted by one of their own - Dr. Micheal Siegel of Boston, a long time "public health" employee and proponent of smoke free living. But he berates the misinformation so often "press released" by his former associates at "tobacco control" he maintains a website dedicated to debunking their garbage. It is: http://tobaccoanalysis.blogspot.com/
Dr. Siegel has written that our former Surgeon General, Richard Carmona, made "off the record" statements (which were blasted far and wide by TC), purporting that "brief exposure" to ETS, posed a danger - but his claims were completely unsubstantiated in the findings (and pages) of his 2006 Surgeon General's Report on Smoking and health. Not only, says Siegel, do his former colleagues at TC chronically overstate the "dangers" of ETS, but they disparage any tobacco substitute that might compete with those products, and which are not produced by their "mother ship" - their good friends at Johnson & Johnson. (As readily evidenced in today's post about E-cigs.)
I hope I have sufficiently satisfied your demand that I substantiate my claims about "profiteers" in Tobacco Control. I am not "talking through my hat" when I tell you that TC is not an entirely "benevolent" and "altruistic" association, nor that it has the pristine ethics that they would have so many believe.
In fact, from my view, TC is a steamroller. One that has illegally crushed all semblance of my right to Free Assembly, which has not only "abridged" but completely barred my association with even those who are MY fellows, and PEERS! We would like to enjoy an evening out socialising together with them, with a drink in one hand, and a little music, but that pleasure is sorely lacking, without a cig in my other hand. Try as you may to change me, I am what I am. For any instant moment, you cannot wish me, nor can I wish myself, into being a non-smoker. And in MY humble opinion, the same gov't that once allowed big cig to encourage me to try this pleasure, has no Constitutional standing to separate me from other like-minded citizens, who might share these same interests - simply because we comprise a (sometimes overtly hated) social and political minority.
We pay our fair share to society - and plenty more. There must be a way to restore the equitable ideals of "live and let live" in this country, and in the other countries that are now feeling the jackboot of this brand of corporate control. (Ireland and Great Britain are reeling from the loss of their own legendary pubs since TC visited there, and at an alarming pace.) If you want more info, please see: www.smokersclubinternational.com /antis/who they are. Or www.Forces.org (their archives exhibit 70 studies from around the world. proving that ETS is harmless!)
And if you want to show me that you do not look down on me as some untouchable caste or "underclass" of a person... When/if we chance to pass each other on the street, please don't succumb to the temptation to grab your kids' hand and walk a wide berth around me. The streets, after all, are the only place left (in my State), where I am allowed to smoke.
I hope it won't become that way in yours.
Thanks.
MsCitizen2
May 18, 2010 - 3:29 pm EDTIn furtherance of my points about "nicotine replacement" wars and the "cash interests" of our legislators:
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/Big-Pharma-rumbles-wit...
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