| As smoke clears, rivalries are revealed Albany -- Workplace smoking ban has prompted bar owners, bingo halls to squeal on their competition |
| By ANDREW TILGHMAN, Staff writer First published: Friday, August 1, 2003 |
| One week after the statewide no-smoking ban took effect, bar owners and bingo players are learning who their enemies are: each other. Business operators ratting out the competition has accounted for as much as half the smoking complaints lodged with local health departments, officials said. "You'd think these people would ban together, but obviously not," said Jack Parisi, director of environmental health for Schenectady County Public Health Services, who said a majority of the roughly 10 complaints the county has received have been from other businesses. So far, however, local health officials are not issuing fines, only warnings. Under the new state law that prohibits smoking in virtually every workplace and public building, business owners can be fined up to $2,000 for violating the new Clean Indoor Air Act. For now, health officials are sending warning letters or placing phone calls to notify establishments that a smoking complaint has been filed. Within the next several weeks or months, inspectors will begin following up complaints with visits and citations. Competition among bingo parlors in Rensselaer County has been fierce, where not-for-profit groups who depend on bingo fund-raising have reacted to the new law like warring nations reluctant to unilaterally disarm. "I'm trying to negotiate a peace treaty," said Roy Champagne, director of environmental health for the Rensselaer County Health Department. More than a dozen people from various bingo operations have called to report violations by their competitors, Champagne said. Some bingo operators were confused about the law and mistakenly thought they were exempt. At the Italian Community Center in Troy, bingo operators permitted smoking last week but have since stopped, after speaking to local health department for a clarification of the rules. "Our bread and butter is the bingo," said Joe Mazzariello, the group's treasurer. "We don't want to take any player from any other organization, but we don't want to lose our players to another organization that is a little more lax on the law." Bar owners appear to be enforcing the ban more widely, and some patrons are staying at home, leaving early or stepping outside to smoke, and spending less money on drinks. "We are enforcing it and it's killing us," said Eddie Shea, owner of Shea's Restaurant in Albany, who said his bar business is down nearly 40 percent. Some bar owners are thinking of charging customers $1 for an ashtray in an effort to defray the risk of a fine. Others are considering setting aside $1,000 for a fine and permitting smoking until health officials take action, bar owners said. Soon after the ban took effect on July 24, patrons at Guiseppe's Restaurant on Route 7 in Hoosick Falls began driving over to Vermont, where they could smoke, said the owner, who asked that he be identified only as Joe. In response, the owner laid off two of his bartenders and began working the shifts himself, thinking perhaps the new law permits smoking in an owner-occupied bar. Health officials say the law has no such exemption. "I don't know how legal it is at this point," the owner said. "It would not be smart to put a sign up and say you can smoke here at this time. I don't think that would go over well." |
