Bar Owners May Turn Tables On Smoking Ban Lawmakers

[AGDee]

Bar and restaurant owners upset about Michigan's workplace smoking ban have a ban of their own in the works.

An organization called Protect Private Property Rights in Michigan says Tuesday that roughly 500 bars statewide plan to ban state lawmakers from their premises. The ban would start Sept. 1.

http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/28955591/detail.html

I find this rather humorous I wonder what the lawmakers will do if this actually happens!

[CutiePie2000]

What about protecting the rights of workers to work in a smoke free environment? It's hard to run a bar with no staff. Or maybe they can just wear a big fishbowl-like "Neil Armstrong" spaceman helmet over their heads when they work, so they don't inhale any smoke.

[AGDee]

The ones who don't want to work in that environment choose to work in the places that remain smoke free?

[Benzgirl]

I go to St. Louis a few times a year on business where smoking in bars is still permitted. I like the food at Ruby Tuesday's, which is near my client and my hotel. I'll only go there at lunch but never at dinner because of the amount of smoke that pours into the restaurant from the bar. I can smell it in the non-smoking section and it plain disgusting. I'm not an employee but I won't be a patron of a place where I allow smoking.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by AGDee

I wonder what the lawmakers will do if this actually happens!

Take their business elsewhere?

I find it interesting that North Carolina of all places is one of only two states (I think) that bans smoking in bars and restaurants, and it's been relatively uncontroversial. Many if not most municipalities had banned it a long time ago.

[AlphaFrog]

I'm not a smoker, and I've lived in states with smoking bans long enough that I don't even think about it anymore. It's funny, though, because my kids were watching an old TV show (Chavo) and there was a guy smoking in a restaurant, and my kids flipped, "That guy is SMOKING in a RESTAURANT...you can't do that!". After they pointed it out, it did seem strange to see.

[Drolefille]

Originally Posted by CutiePie2000

What about protecting the rights of workers to work in a smoke free environment? It's hard to run a bar with no staff. Or maybe they can just wear a big fishbowl-like "Neil Armstrong" spaceman helmet over their heads when they work, so they don't inhale any smoke.

Exactly, it's just not a safe work environment.

Originally Posted by AGDee

The ones who don't want to work in that environment choose to work in the places that remain smoke free?

Because jobs are so easy to find these days? Some places have managed to find an equilibrium, St. Louis is often one of those, where there are a significant number of smoke free restaurants so that there are actually choices. Even there I suspect most if not all 'bars' are not smoke free and there aren't options.

Originally Posted by Benzgirl

I go to St. Louis a few times a year on business where smoking in bars is still permitted. I like the food at Ruby Tuesday's, which is near my client and my hotel. I'll only go there at lunch but never at dinner because of the amount of smoke that pours into the restaurant from the bar. I can smell it in the non-smoking section and it plain disgusting. I'm not an employee but I won't be a patron of a place where I allow smoking.

It seems like it really depends on the area of town and the time of day in STL. But before 9 or 10 even the Hookah bar in the Loop doesn't allow indoor smoking. It's not a great situation there but the local restaurants wanted to avoid a ban imposed on them.

Originally Posted by MysticCat

Take their business elsewhere?

I find it interesting that North Carolina of all places is one of only two states (I think) that bans smoking in bars and restaurants, and it's been relatively uncontroversial. Many if not most municipalities had banned it a long time ago.

*Waves from Illinois which is the (or another of the) states. Everyone here got over it by now. And those of us non-smokers love it.

[DrPhil]

Yaaaaaaay for smoke-free environments. Those who choose to smoke shouldn't be able to ruin our health along with theirs.

[AZ-AlphaXi]

Originally Posted by AlphaFrog

I'm not a smoker, and I've lived in states with smoking bans long enough that I don't even think about it anymore. It's funny, though, because my kids were watching an old TV show (Chavo) and there was a guy smoking in a restaurant, and my kids flipped, "That guy is SMOKING in a RESTAURANT...you can't do that!". After they pointed it out, it did seem strange to see.

I love watching the old movies and the old tv shows (as in Perry Mason) .. but am always stuck by how everyone is smoking!

[carnation]

It shocks me now, but remember what it was like then? Most of the adults I knew smoked and there were candy cigarettes for kids and ads on TV (even from the Flintstones!) and the radio and...idk, it was just what adults did. Until the Surgeon General's report came out in the early sixties...

[Low C Sharp]

The ones who don't want to work in that environment choose to work in the places that remain smoke free?

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.

[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!

[agzg]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

I find it interesting that North Carolina of all places is one of only two states (I think) that bans smoking in bars and restaurants, and it's been relatively uncontroversial. Many if not most municipalities had banned it a long time ago.

New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania (might still be in the works), California, I think there are a bunch more too. Michigan is still in the works, but the last I heard the casinos would be exempt, I feel like Ohio also has a ban.

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by carnation

It shocks me now, but remember what it was like then? Most of the adults I knew smoked and there were candy cigarettes for kids and ads on TV (even from the Flintstones!) and the radio and...idk, it was just what adults did. Until the Surgeon General's report came out in the early sixties...

Yep, cultural shifts. Most images showed everyone smiling and having fun with cigarettes or cigars or pipes. Then as you got into the 1970s-1980s, there were less smiles and more images of people frowning or stressed out and smoking. I specifically recall images of stressed out employees running to the side of the building so they can frown, complain, and smoke together. My favorite anti-smoking advertisement from that time was of a stressed out person smoking in the rain while his happy co-workers were inside eating lunch together.

My siblings and I loved those candy cigarettes. But, it was horrible imagery for kids. It's like Big League Chew, that bag of chewing gum that mirrored chewing tobacco. I used to love that gum.

[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.