June 2006
Smokeless or Smokefree?
Ohio voters may decide in November
by Laura Freeman

Greg Lawrence, owner of Lakeshore Coffee House on Lakeshore Blvd. in Euclid, made his coffee house smoke-free a couple of years ago. Courtney Biehl, left, and Brandon Rucker smoke on the shop's patio that Lawrence added to appease his smoking customers. Photo by Toby Shingleton

Two factions are at work in Ohio. One is a group that wants to keep smokers from lighting up inside public places, period. Another group thinks it should be OK to smoke in places such as bars and bowling alleys.

Both sides are busily collecting signatures. It’s possible with enough signatures on these opposing petitions that both proposals could appear side by side on the ballot this November, giving voters a chance to decide for themselves.

If either is passed, it would put Ohio in line with many other states and municipalities that have enacted similar legislation. The question is, how would this legislation affect businesses?

Smoke-less or smokefree? What do you think? Should smoking be banned in all public places? Or should the law exempt bars, bowling alleys and other institutions that have a large clientele of smokers? Yes, smoking should be banned in all public places No, the law should exempt institutions that have a large clientele of smokers Current Results

The players

SmokeFreeOhio is a campaign by the American Cancer Society in collaboration with 375 other supporting health organizations for a strict statewide ban on public indoor smoking. The Smoke-Free Workplace Act would ensure clean indoor air for everyone in Ohio.

Their literature says they believe “because secondhand smoke causes cancer, heart disease and lung diseases, that everyone has the right to breathe clean indoor air, free of secondhand smoke, in public places and workplaces.”

Locally, the Lake-Geauga Tobacco Prevention Coalition wholeheartedly supports

SmokeFreeOhio’s ideas. The organization is funded by the Ohio Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Foundation. Groups involving tobacco prevention for high school students, such as STAMP, or Stay Tobacco-Free Athlete Mentor Program, are other efforts by the coalition to eradicate smoking.

In the other corner

Smoke Less Ohio, or the Hospitality Coalition, whose members include the Ohio Restaurant Association, the Ohio Licensed Beverage Association and representatives from the tobacco and alcohol industries led by R.J. Reynolds, has launched its own petition effort.

Their legislation proposes a more moderate statewide smoking policy, allowing exemptions for bars, bingo halls, racetracks, bowling alleys, fraternal organizations and restaurants with separate, walled-off smoking sections. It would rival the SmokeFreeOhio effort to place a total smoking ban on the fall ballot.

Under this legislation, neighborhood bars and taverns that sell less than 30 percent food could allow smoking in their establishments; customers must be 21 years of age or older. Also, it would allow bowling centers to have certain hours for adults who want to smoke.

Recent polling on behalf of the coalition indicates Ohioans want a choice and not an all-out ban. If passed, the amendment would repeal all current smoking bans.

Conflicting polls

The American Cancer Society reports that secondhand smoke causes 53,000 deaths each year from cancer and heart disease, yet smoking advocates say there are studies that show no “statistically significant correlation between secondhand smoke and any disease.” Who’s right? It’s not only physical health at stake here; it’s the health of their businesses they are worried about.

Vida Prekler, coordinator for Clean Indoor Air of Lake and Geauga counties, is educating people about the hazards of smoking where they live and work. She is a former smoker and a cancer survivor.

When bar owners tell Prekler they will lose income by becoming a nonsmoking establishment, she shows them numbers from studies that indicate otherwise.

“They may take a dip in their income at first, but as time goes by they’ve made more money by having a smoke-free environment,” Prekler said. “People want a healthy environment for themselves, their children and grandchildren.”

Prekler also is a community liaison with the Lake-Geauga Tobacco Prevention Coalition. The group cites studies backed by sales tax receipts from restaurants and bars in New York City that show sales are up 8.7 percent since the city went smoke-free in March 2003.

Another study shows 10,600 new restaurant and bar jobs in New York City. A California study shows sales tax receipts in bars and restaurants increased by 7 percent each of the first two years after passage of a smoke-free ordinance.

A 2002 survey found a majority of Ohioans would support legislation to make public indoor spaces, including restaurants and bars, smoke-free.

People who don’t smoke are upset,” Prekler said. “Sixty percent want a smoke-free state. I believe in what I’m doing. I live with a smoker and it breaks my heart. Is Ohio going to go smoke-free? I think so. If it doesn’t, we’ll try again.”

Jacob Evans is spokesperson for Smoke Less Ohio and the Ohio Licensed Beverage Association which represents liquor permit holders in Ohio. His group’s polls show the opposite.

“What we’ve seen from the polling we’ve done is the majority of Ohioans want a smoking proposal that bans smoking in some businesses and allows for smoking in a very small number of other businesses,” Evans said. “Ohioans believe there are certain businesses that should be nonsmoking and they want a moderate proposal.”

Smoking section

David Corey, who represents the Ohio Coin Machine Association, the Bowling Centers Association of Ohio and other like-minded organizations who are part of Smoke Less Ohio, said the economic studies cited by SmokeFreeOhio show different results than what has happened in Columbus and Toledo.

“The smoking ban has been in effect in Columbus for over a year and nonsmokers never came to the bars,” Corey said. “They had two bowling centers close in Toledo that didn’t reopen. As we’ve seen in other states and in other areas, they don’t. That’s because about 60 to 70 percent of bar patrons are smokers.”

Corey said these studies are skewed by counting establishments that are mainly food-oriented, including fast-food restaurants.

“You won’t find a study that singles out bars and bowling centers where the primary source of income is liquor sales,” he said. “SmokeFreeOhio says they’re protecting the employees in these establishments. We think a total statewide ban is too detrimental to Ohio’s working class.”

Smoke Less Ohio did its own survey of employees in taverns, bars and bowling centers. The study found employees choose to work in that type of establishment because they can smoke. He said many single mothers trying to raise their kids lost their jobs when these establishments closed.

“Who are they protecting? Employees are going outside to smoke. They are not as effective, they take more breaks, they’re not producing as much,” Corey said.

In Columbus, Corey said the Ohio Coin Machine Association, which regulates video games, juke boxes, pool tables and the like, reported that business dropped 30 percent almost overnight when the ban went into effect.

“We know exactly which bars are allowing smoking and which aren’t by the amount of money being collected in the machines,” he said.

Corey said Ohio’s economy already is fragile enough.

“We’re trying to attract business, tourism, etcetera, and then we tell a segment of the population that we don’t want them to come to our establishments that even though you participate in a legal product we don’t want you, It doesn’t make sense,” he said.
He posed another question.

“If opening or operating a nonsmoking bar was going to bring in tons of business, why isn’t the private sector or an entrepreneur opening one? Because it’s not profitable,” Corey said. “Someone tried it in Columbus and it went belly up in eight months. Nonsmokers are not the demographics that go to a bar.”

Nonsmoking section

Gary Richmond is owner of the Johnny Mango restaurants in Willoughby and Cleveland. Both restaurants are smoke-free. Before making his decision he and his partner and managers played badminton with the issue at weekly meetings.

“We’d read different studies and research that second-hand smoke was just as deadly as firsthand smoke and that people in my profession were particularly at risk for lung disease, heart disease and cancer,” Richmond said.

To help make his decision, Richmond polled his customers by e-mail for their opinion on how going smoke-free would effect the frequency of their visits.

“We got all kinds of responses,” he said. “I was surprised at the number of smokers who said yes, I’m a smoker, but I’m willing to step outside.”

Out of 535 respondents, 75 percent said they favored going nonsmoking and their frequency would increase; 14 percent were neutral and 11 percent said they wouldn’t want it to happen and they wouldn’t come back if it did.

The Cleveland restaurant became a nonsmoking establishment Aug. 16, 2004. Richmond said it was a good decision.

“It’s been great. Our employee retention has improved and we’re in a labor-intensive industry with high turnover,” he said. “Our business after six months increased over 9 percent when compared to the corresponding six-month period the year before.”

The Willoughby location has been nonsmoking from the start. Richmond has continued to read information from studies on the subject; he particularly appreciates those done on sales tax receipts. He quoted a Harvard University study that showed sales tax receipts went up about 9 percent after the ban.

“That’s almost identical to our results,” Richmond said.

He said people in his profession have nothing to fear.

“It’s just a matter of asking people who smoke to step outside,” Richmond said. “It protects the health of the people who work in restaurants 40 hours a week as well as enhancing the comfort level of those in the establishment.”

Whose choice is it?

Thom Coffman is secretary of the Ohio Restaurant Association. The ORA works for members’ rights to run their establishments as they wish. The organization operates on the belief that its members should be able to choose a smoking policy that works best for them and their patrons, both nonsmokers and smokers.

Coffman owns two restaurants and a bar in Columbus. He quit smoking in 1987. He loves his facilities being nonsmoking, and even if the relaxed law was passed, he would probably keep them nonsmoking.

“But that would be my choice, not some other organization’s,” he said.

He opened one restaurant after the smoking ban was in place; the other is more than 55 years old. It went from a heavily smoke clientele to nonsmoking clientele. There was a loss of business, but mostly at the bar inside the restaurant, not in the dining room.

Coffman also owns a bar called the Round Bar. It doesn’t serve food and the clientele must be 21 to enter. There, business went down almost 35 percent.

“We just built a patio so now people can go sit outside during nice weather,” Coffman said. “We’re hoping it will help us out and bring some of the business back.”

Coffman said nonsmokers have not replaced the smokers that used to frequent his establishment. He offered his personal opinion.

“I never had an issue of whether smoking is bad for you or not,” he said. “I think a business owner who has his life savings tied up in his businesses should be able to choose to be a smoking or nonsmoking establishment.”

Peer pressure

Wendy Simpkins is director of media relations for the American Cancer Society and campaign communications director for SmokeFreeOhio.

“We think every Ohioan has the right to breathe clean air at work and in public places,” she said. “We’re not telling smokers not to smoke, we’re just asking them to step outside so their smoke doesn’t harm other people.”

Simpkins said smokers say that banning indoor smoking will help them be successful next time they try to quit.

“We will not be stopped from letting Ohio voters decide this issue just because the tobacco industry has deep pockets to fund multiple lawsuits,” Simpkins said.

She referred to a May court battle in which a Columbus judge said some signatures were invalid because they identified the petition circulators’ employer as the American Cancer Society, instead of a company hired by ACS to gather signatures. SmokeFreeOhio now needs to gather more signatures; their lawyers plan to appeal.

If the Smoke-Free Workplace Act is passed, Ohio would be alongside 14 states and 1,600 communities that have passed clean indoor air laws, including California, Delaware and Massachusetts. It would be joining 1,600 communities nationwide, including Chicago, Dallas and Minneapolis. Entire countries have gone smoke-free including Ireland and Italy.

Nationally, all Pizza Hut and KFC restaurants are now smoke-free. Locally, there are many nonsmoking restaurants including Manhattan Deli in Willoughby Hills, Casa D’Angelo and Great Lakes Mall in Mentor, Red Robin and Lady Charleton Tea Parlour in Willoughby and Maple Leaf Restaurant in Chardon. The Ponderosa on Ohio 306 in Mentor tried going smoke-free for one day, but decided against it.

Debonne Vineyards in Madison went smoke-free in April; owner Beth Debevc said it’s wonderful.
“I think it’s a good decision to make,” Debevc said. “When Tony (Debevc) interviews winemakers, he asks if they smoke. There are too many great noses in this building and one of them doesn’t need to be filled with cigarette smoke.” (In describing wines, “a great nose” indicates the wine’s aroma.)

Debevc said it’s also a health issue for her employees. “I think smoking is a freedom which I hope they never take away from people, but I don’t feel that it’s a freedom that should involve everybody. Sure, you can smoke, but don’t be smoking in my face or my house.”

For more information on these proposed state laws and the studies done by each group, visit www.smokefreeohio.org or www.smokersclubinc.com.

Laura Freeman is assistant editor of the Lake County Business Journal.