Bar Owners May Turn Tables On Smoking Ban Lawmakers

[CutiePie2000]

Originally Posted by Low C Sharp

Workers who need the money would accept all kinds of environments. We've decided as a society that it's not OK to ask your staff to breathe asbestos or clean skyscraper windows without a safety line. It's wrong, and it ends up imposing costs on the rest of society when the workers get hurt. Tobacco smoke is no different from other workplace hazards.

Exactly.

[AOII Angel]

Other places have gotten through the ban with no mishaps. Bar owners didn't lose business because of the ban. People just walk outside to smoke then come back in. Restaurants are much nicer because you can actually taste your food, and going out for the night doesn't mean you end up smelling like a chain smoker. I forget it was ever different until I walk into an Indian casino. Soooo smokey!

[ree-Xi]

MA has been smoke-free for quite a long time now. CT has been for a while, too.

There are way more than two states who are smoke free.

[33girl]

When we got a drink tax here in Allegheny County, many of the bars refused to serve the county council, put up their photos so if you saw them on the street you could tell them what dicks they were, and put a note at the end of their computer receipts that said "thank your County Council for this stupid tax" and a few things that were even ruder.

As far as the smoking ban is concerned, PA has one, but there are TONS of ways to get a waiver, which pretty much shoots a hole in their "we did this so the workers would be protected" argument. They did it under pressure from anti-smoking interest groups, who (of course) now seem to have forgotten all about the workers who are working in bars that are still smoker friendly.

The only absolute is that if you have smoking in your establishment, children under 18 are not allowed in the smoking area. EVER.

There are all sorts of bars and all I can say is if you don't want to work in a smoking bar, don't apply there. If you had a perfume allergy you wouldn't work at Ulta, and if you had a peanut allergy you wouldn't sell them at the ballpark. Around here, what I've seen is the bartenders who work in smoking bars are for the most part, people who've been doing this a LONG time, have a following and could go to another job in a non-smoking bar if they wanted to. The places with the horrible working conditions, misogyny and constant turnover are the corporate-owned or catering-to-college-kids non-smoking bars.

[ASTalumna06]

I'm not a smoker and I don't like being around it, but I actually like the way that PA does it..

Restaurants and bars are exempt from the No Smoking law where 80% or more of the sales comes from alcohol, and where anyone under 18 isn't allowed. In other words, you're allowed to smoke in bars that are only open at night.

I don't really have an issue with this. After attending many college parties where people were smoking, I got used to it. Don't get me wrong.. I'd much prefer to not be around it at all, but I also think establishments where people are drinking and will be staying for hours and hours on end should allow it. The only time that I'm truly bothered by people smoking around me is when I'm eating. And if you can't get through a 45 minute meal without a cigarette, it might be time to pick up some of that special gum they sell at the pharmacy.

[knight_shadow]

Most of the DFW cities have had smoking bans for years. Smokers will generally go to the establishments that still allow smoking or step outside when they need to. A few of the cities have started forcing patrons farther away from the door, though (went from "step outside" to "10 feet from the door" to "25 feet from the door," etc).

[PiKA2001]

Originally Posted by knight_shadow

Most of the DFW cities have had smoking bans for years. Smokers will generally go to the establishments that still allow smoking or step outside when they need to. A few of the cities have started forcing patrons farther away from the door, though (went from "step outside" to "10 feet from the door" to "25 feet from the door," etc).

I want to say most of TX is smoke free now (at least EP, HOU, DFW). AFAIK TX left it up to Counties/cities to ban it instead of making a state wide law banning it. It's not bad smoking outside here since the coldest it ever gets here is 40 degrees in the dead of winter. I want to say there are more non-smoking states than smoking states these days anyway.

[AGDee]

I think there would be less backlash if they banned it in the casinos also though.

There is a county here that has also banned transfats from being used in restaurants, which I also think is B.S. I just think that should be the business owner's decision, not something that should be regulated. I also think that should be the choice of the person who goes to a restaurant. If someone wants to eat transfats, they should be allowed to.

[ASTalumna06]

Originally Posted by AGDee

I think there would be less backlash if they banned it in the casinos also though.

There is a county here that has also banned transfats from being used in restaurants, which I also think is B.S. I just think that should be the business owner's decision, not something that should be regulated. I also think that should be the choice of the person who goes to a restaurant. If someone wants to eat transfats, they should be allowed to.

This I will agree with.

This is a personal choice. I can order something from the menu that is good for me, or I can order something that is bad. Or I can go to a different place. If I'm eating out at a restaurant, I don't expect that the food is going to be good for me, anyway.

If they want to require restaurants to put the calorie count on the menu, I can deal with that (although I still don't completely agree with it). But demanding that they serve certain items, or don't include fats/sodium/carbs etc. in the food is ridiculous.

[AGDee]

I think MC means casinos on "US" land, not casinos on reservations. All the rules are different on reservations. That's why they did an exemption for the "other casinos" in Detroit. There was fear that people would go to the reservation casinos to gamble then because our laws don't apply there.

[AlphaFrog]

Originally Posted by AGDee

I think MC means casinos on "US" land, not casinos on reservations. All the rules are different on reservations. That's why they did an exemption for the "other casinos" in Detroit. There was fear that people would go to the reservation casinos to gamble then because our laws don't apply there.

I took it to mean "I we had them in NC".

Harrahs Cherokee is very decidedly NOT smoke-free. They do have a smoke free room, and it was worth spending $15/ hand Blackjack for that.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by AGDee

I think MC means casinos on "US" land, not casinos on reservations.

This, and I did think of the Harrah's in Cherokee. Yes, it's in NC, but it's not subject to any NC regulation.

[PiKA2001]

Originally Posted by AGDee

I think MC means casinos on "US" land, not casinos on reservations. All the rules are different on reservations. That's why they did an exemption for the "other casinos" in Detroit. There was fear that people would go to the reservation casinos to gamble then because our laws don't apply there.

But Isn't the closet reservation casino in Mt. Pleasant? That's a far haul to make just so you can smoke at your slot machine. People were worried that smokers would just go to the Windsor Casino to gamble.

[PM_Mama00]

Originally Posted by AGDee

Michigan's has been in effect for well over a year. The only place it is allowed is in the casinos. This is what the bars and restaurants are upset about. They've lost a lot of business to the casinos.

If the concern is for the workers, then why would casinos be exempt? If we really care about workers, then we wouldn't allow mining or steel mills or a lot of the other extremely dangerous jobs out there. It is all about who is in the back pockets of the politicians. Shoot, I worked as a counter girl at the dry cleaner and the chemicals I was exposed to were downright scary.

I think the market should dictate things like this. Yes, there is a market for smoke free restaurants and bars. There is also a market for those that allow smoking. Smokers can choose to work in the places that allow smoking. Given that 22% of the population smokes, it would follow that 20% of the bars and restaurants could allow smoking.

Dee this thread is making me laugh because some people obviously have no clue what this group is trying to do.

They want bar owners to have a CHOICE to go smoke free or not. They want their customers to have a CHOICE if they want to go to a smoking or smoke free bar. There are a few bars in the area where it would be stupid for them to allow smoking because they have gotten busier. Then there are the hole in the wall bars that have lost business (even closed) because the majority of their clientele are smokers.

The bar that I go to lost a TON of business after the ban. Once they decided to protest the ban, the bar is once again busy.

And if we're going to talk about safety for employees, let's ban alcohol! How many times have I seen little waitresses get knocked around trying to break up a bar fight between drunken idiots? Or how about strippers? I mean, they put themselves in danger because guys are groping them and they could be molested while giving a lap dance.

There's danger in every job. I work at a company that does job recruiting (which has become huge in our area). How easily could an employee go ape shit when they've been laid off, fired, or an assignment finished?

Rick- you can't smoke in Windsor Casino either. And let's talk about the ventilation system at the casinos. I'm a smoker and have trouble breathing in there. I stink like an ash tray, WORSE than the smoking bars, when I leave.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by PM_Mama00

Rick- you can't smoke in Windsor Casino either. And let's talk about the ventilation system at the casinos. I'm a smoker and have trouble breathing in there. I stink like an ash tray, WORSE than the smoking bars, when I leave.

That must be some sort of secret thing to make you gamble more, because the brand spankin' new casino here in Pittsburgh is the same way. And I go to the smokiest, hole-in-the-walliest, dive bars in town.