Colorado goes nonsmoking

[wmspringer]

Unfortunately, it doesn't apply to casinos...but that's a whole 'nother battle...


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States: Smoke ban is a boon
Studies note gains in tax revenues, health of workers
By Bill Scanlon, Rocky Mountain News
March 18, 2006

Most cities and states that ban smoking in restaurants and bars see not only a spike in health but a boost in sales tax revenues, analyses show.

Colorado's smoking ban became a virtual certainty Friday when House members approved it 38-24 and sent it to Gov. Bill Owens, who said he will sign it.

It is expected to become law on July 1.

Evidence from the 12 states with smoking bans, as well as the many U.S. cities with widespread bans, indicates that along with fewer burning eyes and hacking coughs comes an uptick in tax revenues from bars and restaurants.

Opponents of smoking bans say that may be true of the overall hospitality industry, but bars and taverns will see a sharp drop in business.

But supporters predict that Coloradans who now shun the night life will return - a trend verified in other places.

New York City enacted a ban March 30, 2003. A year later, business tax receipts from restaurants and bars were up 8.7 percent from the previous year.

The ZagatSurvey for New York restaurants indicated that 23 percent of respondents dined out more often after the ban, while just 4 percent of respondents said they were dining out less.

Delaware also saw an uptick in tax revenues at bars and restaurants since its smoke-free law was enacted.

In California, restaurant and bar receipts have improved every year since the ban was enacted in 1997.

The greatest health benefit will go to the bar worker, who typically inhales the equivalent of 1.5 to 2 packs of cigarettes during an eight-hour shift, said Chris Sherwin, executive director of the Colorado Tobacco Education and Prevention Alliance. "Employees are going to be a lot healthier."

Ban will be 'wonderful'

Magazine writer Ted Stedman said he spent Friday coughing and hacking, after having a couple beers Thursday at a Denver bar.

"I was sitting next to this guy with Camel cigarettes," he said. "You don't want to be a whiner. But I spent all day today hacking, like I had the flu."

Stedman said a smoking ban in Colorado will be "wonderful," and get him out to clubs that he now avoids.

A number of studies concerning both business and health have been conducted in the past few years since smoking bans were enacted.

• In Ireland, where 30 percent of the adults smoke, pub revenues declined between 3 percent and 15 percent, depending on whether proponents or opponents of the two-year-old ban were doing the counting. The theory is that Irish pubs fared worse than American bars after smoking bans because a higher percentage of Irish people are addicted to nicotine.

• Studies in Helena, Mont., and Pueblo found significant drops in hospital admissions for heart attacks in the year after municipal smoking bans.

The Pueblo study found a nearly 30 percent drop in heart attacks in just the first few months.

The Helena study found that after the 2001 smoking ban, heart attacks declined by 40 percent. After the law was suspended because of a legal challenge, the heart attack rate rose again.

• The Helena study, together with a British study that found a smoke-free environment reduced heart problems by 40 percent, prompted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta to issue a warning that people at risk of heart disease should avoid exposure to secondhand smoke.

CDC pointed to "the immediate effects" secondhand smoke can have in indoor places that allow smoking.

The CDC estimates that 3,000 Americans who've never smoked die each year of lung cancer from secondhand smoke, and another 35,000 nonsmokers die of heart disease as a result of secondhand smoke.

• In New York, before a statewide ban took effect, three of every five restaurant workers reported respiratory problems. After the ban, the number of restaurant workers reporting a morning cough fell by almost half, according to the New York Department of Health.

Most smokers want to quit

Both the tobacco industry and its opponents estimate that smoking bans in cities or states reduce total cigarette consumption by about 10 percent in the first year of the ban.

Sherwin noted that surveys of Colorado smokers find that 85 percent of them want to quit.

"Imagine if you're trying to quit and want to go out and have a drink," Sherwin said. If the bar is filled with smoke, the urge to smoke becomes all the greater, he said. But if the bar is smoke-free, he added, the temptation isn't as strong and the chances of quitting the habit improve.

Some of the revenues from Colorado's newly beefed up tobacco tax are being used to fund a Web site. www.co.quitnet.com, to help smokers quit and to give them eight weeks of free nicotine patches.

scanlon@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-442-8729

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