It all comes back to the health effects, to which there is nil.
Most non-smokers we know hang out with smokers, and could care less. Plus, the Casinos in Las Vegas have huge smoke eaters. You have to even look to see if anyone is smoking. The smoke eaters remove all traces of smoke and/or body odor. The days of the smokey back rooms are gone.
But still, the sight of a cigarette is enough to set some people off for some reason or another. And what about all the business that have closed because they were forced to go smoke-free? I still believe government intervention is wrong!
Most non-smokers hang out with non-smokers and do care! Do smokers not care that they stink to most of the population!
By Jennifer Fitzenberger The Fresno Bee
(Published Wednesday, September 25, 2002, 7:41 AM)
Smoke clouds the air inside the Beer Hunter bar, where patrons puff on cigarettes and tap ashes into empty popcorn tubs.
It's Monday night, and the usual crew has gathered at the Blackstone Avenue bar to unwind after a busy workday. The locals sip beers and chat in the glow of televisions airing NFL football.
In the back, on stools near the pool tables, two undercover Fresno police officers eye patrons violating the smoke-free workplace law. A phone call later, officers in marked vests enter the bar, and five smokers are cited.
Some patrons laugh. Some grumble. Some walk outside to light another cigarette.
"I'm sorry, I just think this is kind of stupid," Krissy Lowrie says as her friend Edward Pelkey is handed a citation.
The Fresno County District Attorney's Office later will contact the Beer Hunter's owner to discuss the violation. Police cite businesses after gathering evidence to show the owner knowingly allows smoking.
Police scout businesses at least once a week, thanks to a $300,000 state Department of Health Services, Tobacco Control Section grant received in October 2001. Nearly a year later, tobacco-law compliance is at an all-time high in Fresno, police say.
Fresno police made 131 visits to bars between January and June, says police detective Ken Dodd, who heads the tobacco enforcement effort.
About 30% of businesses police visited between January and March violated tobacco laws. Noncompliance dropped to 10% between April and June.
Under the grant, officers also try to curb tobacco sales to minors. Police perform decoy operations where 16-year-olds try to buy cigarettes.
Officers sent decoys into 278 stores in the first six months of 2002. Thirty of those businesses sold tobacco products to the teenagers. Only one store reoffended, Dodd says.
Police also make sure stores keep tobacco-product displays out of the public's reach.
Tobacco laws are "not something that they're winking at anymore," Dodd says of businesses.
But that wasn't always the case. In 1999, 65% of Fresno's stand-alone bars did not comply with the smoke-free law, according to a community coalition separate from the Police Department.
Some owners feared business would drop; others simply disagreed with the law and, on principle, refused to comply.
Smoking in bars and casinos was outlawed in January 1998. The ban is part of a 1995 law aimed at protecting employees from secondhand smoke, which has been linked to lung cancer, respiratory problems and other illnesses.
Early on, police had insufficient resources to enforce the law. Beat officers checked out complaints when they could, but other, more violent crimes often took priority.
"Unfortunately, they didn't have the time," Dodd says.
Between Jan. 1, 1998, and Nov. 16, 1999, Fresno police didn't write a single citation, the community coalition reported. But, armed with grant money, police cited 76 patrons between January and August this year, Dodd says.
In the past four months, the Fresno County Sheriff's Department has issued 68 citations, Lt. Robert Hagler says. The department received a similar $221,000 tobacco law-enforcement grant from the state.
Patrons face up to an $86 fine for a first offense, $120 on the second. Business owners first face a $100 fine. They must pay $200 for a second violation, and the third is $500 or set at a judge's discretion.
Businesses convicted three times in one year can be reported to the state Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which can impose fines totaling $70,000, Dodd says. Fresno police never have referred a local business to OSHA.
"Our whole goal is not to go there," Dodd says. "We don't want a small businessman to incur those fines. We just want compliance with the law."
All citations are forwarded to the District Attorney's Office, which sends letters to business owners citing noncompliance, says Roger Wilson, a deputy district attorney in the Business Affairs Division.
Wilson talks with owners who contest a citation. If no agreement is reached, the case can go to trial. In such a case, Wilson might file a complaint also alleging unfair business practice. Judgments can total $2,500 per violation.
No case yet has gone to trial, but Wilson is researching allegations against seven businesses, two of which have a history of noncompliance.
"We're not out to hurt the business," he says. "We're out to coax businesses into compliance."
Fewer people are reporting violations to the Fresno County Tobacco Prevention Program, which educates the public and coordinates training, says Gloria Garcia, the project director and a health educator.
Last summer, the program received 70 to 100 calls a month alleging tobacco-law violations. In the past eight months, calls have dropped to about 10 a month.
"I truly believe the community already knows this law exists, but you have your die-hards out there who say it's their right to smoke," Garcia says.
Take Lisa Hiatt, daytime bar manager at the Beer Hunter on Blackstone. She passionately opposes the law, which she attributes to a drop in business.
On a busy day, the bar takes in $1,000 to $1,500, Hiatt says. When the bar was smoke free -- a period of about three to four months this year -- revenue totaled just $600 to $900.
That means fewer tips for Hiatt, a single mother of two children. "When they take my customers out of my bar, that is cutting into my livelihood," she says.
Hiatt also says it's tough for one bartender to monitor 50 to 70 people. They'll smoke anyway, and when they do, they'll toss their cigarette butts on the floor if no ashtrays are in sight.
Hiatt says bar owners should make their own smoking policies.
Police visited three other bars Monday night looking for smokers. They found no smokers inside World Sports Cafe, Elbow Room and Dakota Club.
"It's a lot more comfortable for our customers," says Sue Murray, manager of Elbow Room. "It's the law, and that's all there is to it."
A violation of tobacco-control laws can be reported by calling Fresno police at (559) 498-2121.