Smoke-free restaurant

A smoke-free restaurant is a dining establishment which does not allow smoking, either voluntarily or because of a legal smoking ban. In many areas of the world, increasingly more restaurants have gone smoke-free, often out of a concern for the health of both employees and clients about exposure to secondhand smoke. It is the opposite of a smokeasy, which is a restaurant or bar that allows smoking despite a legal smoking ban.

Worldwide status

Main articles: List of smoking bans, List of smoking bans in Australia, and List of smoking bans in the United States

Europe used to have fewer smoking bans in restaurants than did Canada or the United States. Per capita rates of smoking are higher in Europe than in North America. Voluntarily smoke-free restaurants have been common in the U.S. since the early 1990s, and since then many states have passed laws outlawing smoking in all restaurants. Some states, such as Washington, passed their smoking bans by referendum, rather than by legislative action. In addition to statewide bans, many large U.S. cities have banned smoking in restaurants. In 2003, New York City amended its smoking ban to include all restaurants and bars, making it one of the toughest in the U.S. In 2004, the city's Department of Health found that air pollution levels had decreased sixfold in bars and restaurants after the ban went into effect, and that business was largely unaffected.

Nevertheless, places in Europe have begun to pass smoking bans, like Ireland (2004), Italy (2005), Sweden (2005), and Norway (2004). The constituent countries of the UK have banned smoking in public places (including restaurants, bars and clubs) within Scotland in 2006, Wales and Northern Ireland in April of 2007, and England in July of 2007; fines of up to £2500 can be imposed upon licensees violating the ban, as well as a £50 fine on the smoker. In 2003, the Parliament of New Zealand passed "Smokefree Environments Amendment Act", which banned smoking in restaurants and pubs, and also placed limits on smoking in other public places. In an interesting follow up study in New Zealand, restaurant revenues did not show a decline, and dining out actually has increased for non-smokers.

In jurisdictions which do not have smoking bans, many restaurants voluntarily do not allow smoking.

Arguments in support

Proponents of smoke-free restaurants cite the following as benefits to barring smoking in dining establishments:

• Reduction of heart disease deaths. Medical research demonstrates that second hand tobacco smoke causes 35,000 to 40,000 excess deaths per year in the U.S. alone.
• Research suggests that the thought of more smoke-free restaurants is attracting patrons. A study in New York reports that 96 percent of those surveyed are dining out "as often" or "more often" since a smoking ban was enacted for restaurants.
• Results in a multitude of benefits for the management and safety of the restaurant, including decreasing the sick time of employees, limited liability of harm to employees and patrons, and decreased risk of fire hazards..
• Results in reduction of carbon monoxide, a contaminant present in tobacco smoke. Increased levels of carbon monoxide has been shown to cause headache, chest pain, alteration of blood pressure and nausea.ref>http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002804.htm</ref>
• Reduction in workers compensation claims and fire insurance premiums.
• Reduction in synergistic adverse impacts in some locations that also have other environmental exposure health risk factors such as noise pollution and light pollution.
• More customer rotation as people do not loiter in the restaurant.

Criticism

Some restaurant owners and patrons, as well as some tobacco manufacturers, argue that banning tobacco smoking in restaurants deprives smokers of their access to smoking for a period of time. They also argue that restaurant patrons ought to be able to freely choose whether to enter an environment which poses health risks such as heart disease and cancer. Some patrons also suggest that smoking is an attractive adjunct to their dining experience. One British politician has stated it is unfair and inconsistent to allow prisoners to smoke and not allow the general public to smoke in restaurants.

Some others, such as libertarians, argue that while smoke-free restaurants may have economic benefits for the restaurant that the restaurant should be free to choose for itself and should not be forced to ban smoking by the government, and that patrons should be allowed a choice of whether they wish to patronize a smoking or smoke-free establishment. They cite the number of voluntarily smoke-free restaurants in jurisdictions without smoking bans as evidence that both smoking and non-smoking dining establishments can coexist in a free market.

See also

• Air pollution
• Coronary heart disease
• Indoor air quality
• List of smoking bans
• Tobacco smoking
• Smoking ban
• Smokeasy

Further reading

• Center for Disease Control (CDC), Annual smoking-attributable mortality, years of potential life lost, and productivity losses---United States, 1997--2001. CDC publication MMWR 2005;54:625--8.
• CDC, State laws on tobacco control---United States, 1998, CDC publication MMWR 1999;48(No. SS-3):21--62.
• K. Steenland, Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol. 267 No. 1, January 1, 1992
• Tracy Van Rooyen, Smoking ban: The great divide, Chester Chronicle (UK), Feb 17, 2006
• US Department of Health and Human Services. Reducing tobacco use: a report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta, GA: US Department of Health and Human Services; 2000.
• US Department of Health and Human Services, Second national report on human exposure to environmental chemicals, Atlanta, GA: US Department of Health and Human Services; 2003. Available at http://www.cdc.gov/exposurereport/2nd/pdf/tobaccosmoke.pdf.
• Portley PM, Caraballo RS, Pederson LL, Pechacek TF, Exposure to secondhand smoke in the workplace: serum cotinine by occupation, J Occup Environ Med 2002;44:503--9.

External links

• American Nonsmokers' Rights Foundation (an organization advocating for smokefree hospitality venues, in addition to other smokefree workplaces and enclosed public places)
• CDC US Center for Disease Control
• Smokefree World A partial list of current USA bans on restaurant smoking, city by city
• Tobacco Scam How the tobacco industry uses and abuses the hospitality industry
• UICC GLOBALink Smokefree restaurants and hotels worldwide
• UCSF Tobacco Industry Videos Collection

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