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Posted on 06/30/2003 4:39:17 AM PDT by Tank-FL

MIAMI, June 29 (Reuters) - Florida's new ban on smoking in restaurants takes effect on Tuesday, literally pushing cigarette-puffing patrons out the door to protect other diners and drinkers from the health hazards of second-hand smoke.

The ban applies to nearly all indoor workplaces. But since smoking was already prohibited in government buildings, stores, theaters and most office buildings, restaurants and nightclubs were pretty much the only places left to feel the impact.

Smoker Jose Belisario, taking a cigarette break on the outdoor plaza of a Miami office building, said he did not smoke in restaurants anyway.

"But in the bars and discos, when you are drinking you like to smoke," he said.

Voters approved Florida's ban by a whopping 71 percent in November. Diners who light up after Tuesday face a $100 fine the first time and fines of up to $500 for repeat violations.

The ban was sponsored by Smoke-Free for Health -- made up of Florida divisions of the American Cancer Society, American Heart Association, American Lung Association and other anti-smoking groups. It says 53,000 American non-smokers a year die from diseases caused by exposure to second-hand smoke.

"Now everybody in Florida is going to be protected from this indoors," said Smoke-Free spokesman John Fleming.

The Florida Restaurant Association had opposed a smoking ban for years. But seeing the strong support, it concentrated on winning exemptions for member businesses that draw lots of smokers.

As a result, smoking will still be allowed on outdoor patios like the trendy porch-front cafes that dot tourism-dependent resort towns like Miami Beach and Key West.

Smoking is also allowed in private social clubs like the Moose and the Elks and in stand-alone bars where food accounts for less than 10 percent of total sales.

The ban's impact on revenues is hard to predict, restaurant association spokeswoman Lea Crusberg said. Some restaurants banned smoking in January, when the new law became part of the state constitution.

"Restaurants who went ahead and banned it have seen an increase in non-smoking customers coming in," she said.

But for nightclubs where cigarettes and cocktails have always been part of the ambience, owners say driving out smokers will cut into their revenues.

Miami's oldest cabaret, Tobacco Road, does a brisk lunch and dinner business and cannot afford to stop serving food, which accounts for more than 35 percent of its revenues.

At night it is a music hall and general manager Joe Portela snorts at the irony of making it safe for non-smokers: "We don't have that many of them." But what really has him fuming is what he sees as an attack on private business and individual rights.

"Cigarettes are a legal item," said Portela, a non-smoker. "Now they're going to tell you where and when you can't do it. That's fine in a public place but not in a private location ... If I want to choose to allow smokers in here, and it's a legal item, I should be able to."

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