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Ill effects of smoking ban hard to find
But Tosa restaurants are still worried about losses
By ANNYSA JOHNSON
[email protected]
Last Updated: Nov. 16, 2003
Wauwatosa - The restaurant industry is not adversely affected when smoking bans are enacted at the state and local level, a slew of studies and anecdotal evidence suggest.
That's the position of the non-profit advocacy group SmokeFree Wisconsin and HART, a coalition of residents and health agencies pushing for a ban on smoking in restaurants in Wauwatosa.
One of the ban's chief opponents, Ed Lump of the Wisconsin Restaurant Association, is hard-pressed to disagree. But that argument, he said, misses the point.
"Any smoking ban that isn't complete, that doesn't affect everyone equally, creates winners and losers," Lump said. "There are individual restaurants that will be impacted, and quite adversely. And they're generally those that don't sell alcohol - the George Webbs, the Country Kitchens, the mom and pop diners."
Wauwatosa is poised to become as early as Tuesday the 16th community in Wisconsin and first in Milwaukee County to ban smoking in restaurants.
Secondhand smoke, found to be a carcinogen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is a known cause of lung cancer among healthy non-smokers and a leading cause of heart disease, asthma and allergies, according to the American Cancer Society.
In addition, a 1993 study in the Journal of American Medicine found that waitresses face twice the risk of the general population for lung cancer because of secondhand smoke.
Like similar ordinances around the state and nation, Wauwatosa's ban would exempt any eatery that derives more than 51% of its gross revenue from alcohol, namely taverns.
In addition, smoking would be permitted in restaurants' separate and separately ventilated rooms and enclosed bars. And restaurants that prove a 10% loss of revenue in three to six months after the law takes effect can seek an exemption of up to two years.
Tough fight
The road to Tuesday's vote has been a hardscrabble fight, with health advocates decrying the effects of secondhand smoke and restaurateurs angered by the potential loss of business and government intrusion into their livelihoods.
At the forefront of that fight has been Jayne Aliota, director of restaurant operations for for Waukesha-based George Webb Corp.
A non-smoker, whose parents both died of lung cancer, Aliota said the three George Webbs in Wauwatosa will be among those hardest hit if the ordinance is passed.
"Even with the amendments, we are the losers in this," Aliota said of the Webb diners, which are generally too small to segregate smokers.
"Those restaurants could lose as much as 30% of their business. And I don't know of too many restaurants that can take a 30% hit and survive."
Aliota's concerns notwithstanding, studies suggest that, overall, restaurants are not adversely affected when a smoking ban is enacted.
According to a 1999 study by the Tobacco Free Wisconsin Coalition, restaurant revenue in Dane County increased 24% from 1992 to 1997, compared with 19% statewide. Madison was the first city in Wisconsin to pass a smoking ban, in 1993. Several other Dane County communities followed quickly and also saw gains in spending.
Industry unharmed, study says
A 1994 study reported in the American Journal of Public Health found no adverse economic effects on the restaurant industry in 15 cities that had enacted smoking bans. The tobacco industry attacked that study as flawed. And, though the researchers conceded minor errors on their part, they stood by their findings in a 1997 revisit of that study.
"What we know, from the reams of studies around the country, is that these bans do not hurt the industry as a whole," said Jill Ness, director of grass-root development with SmokeFree Wisconsin in Madison.
That's true, said Lump of the state Restaurant Association: "Overall, there is more fear than substance to the idea that these bans hurt the restaurant industry."
But that does not negate the very real losses experienced by some businesses, he said.
Bill and Gary Anderson, the second-generation owners of Andy's Restaurant in Kenosha, say they lost 27% in gross sales the first year after the city enacted its smoking ban in 2000. Their other eatery, the oldies-theme Andy's Drive In, dropped 18%, they said.
The brothers won a two-year exemption but have been smoke-free now since July.
"We're down about 12% now, so it's better," Bill Anderson said. "But we lost a lot of customers, some we knew 20 years. They could go a mile and a half, two miles down the road to a restaurant where there are no restrictions."
Aliota confirms that, noting that the George Webb restaurant in Pleasant Prairie picked up about 15% to 20% more business when its neighbors in Kenosha went smoke-free.
No rush of non-smokers
Some smokers have found their way back to Andy's, Bill Anderson said. But what has not materialized is the rush of non-smokers that ban advocates argued would clamor to dine at his restaurant.
"We were told to expect an influx of non-smokers, and that has not occurred," Anderson said.
Aliota insists that restaurants in Wauwatosa will see similar losses as diners flee to Milwaukee, Brookfield and other border communities where smoking is not prohibited.
"They're creating an island," said Aliota, who thinks it would be more prudent for the city to wait for a countywide or statewide ban.
"I just hope the Common Council is prepared for the economic impact," she said. "This is going to hurt, not just our business, but a lot of ancillary businesses where our patrons shop."
Ness, of SmokeFree Wisconsin, doesn't believe that will happen. But she added: "In this case public health should trump any perceived economic loss."
From the Nov. 17, 2003 editions of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
But Tosa restaurants are still worried about losses
By ANNYSA JOHNSON
[email protected]
Last Updated: Nov. 16, 2003
Wauwatosa - The restaurant industry is not adversely affected when smoking bans are enacted at the state and local level, a slew of studies and anecdotal evidence suggest.
That's the position of the non-profit advocacy group SmokeFree Wisconsin and HART, a coalition of residents and health agencies pushing for a ban on smoking in restaurants in Wauwatosa.
One of the ban's chief opponents, Ed Lump of the Wisconsin Restaurant Association, is hard-pressed to disagree. But that argument, he said, misses the point.
"Any smoking ban that isn't complete, that doesn't affect everyone equally, creates winners and losers," Lump said. "There are individual restaurants that will be impacted, and quite adversely. And they're generally those that don't sell alcohol - the George Webbs, the Country Kitchens, the mom and pop diners."
Wauwatosa is poised to become as early as Tuesday the 16th community in Wisconsin and first in Milwaukee County to ban smoking in restaurants.
Secondhand smoke, found to be a carcinogen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is a known cause of lung cancer among healthy non-smokers and a leading cause of heart disease, asthma and allergies, according to the American Cancer Society.
In addition, a 1993 study in the Journal of American Medicine found that waitresses face twice the risk of the general population for lung cancer because of secondhand smoke.
Like similar ordinances around the state and nation, Wauwatosa's ban would exempt any eatery that derives more than 51% of its gross revenue from alcohol, namely taverns.
In addition, smoking would be permitted in restaurants' separate and separately ventilated rooms and enclosed bars. And restaurants that prove a 10% loss of revenue in three to six months after the law takes effect can seek an exemption of up to two years.
Tough fight
The road to Tuesday's vote has been a hardscrabble fight, with health advocates decrying the effects of secondhand smoke and restaurateurs angered by the potential loss of business and government intrusion into their livelihoods.
At the forefront of that fight has been Jayne Aliota, director of restaurant operations for for Waukesha-based George Webb Corp.
A non-smoker, whose parents both died of lung cancer, Aliota said the three George Webbs in Wauwatosa will be among those hardest hit if the ordinance is passed.
"Even with the amendments, we are the losers in this," Aliota said of the Webb diners, which are generally too small to segregate smokers.
"Those restaurants could lose as much as 30% of their business. And I don't know of too many restaurants that can take a 30% hit and survive."
Aliota's concerns notwithstanding, studies suggest that, overall, restaurants are not adversely affected when a smoking ban is enacted.
According to a 1999 study by the Tobacco Free Wisconsin Coalition, restaurant revenue in Dane County increased 24% from 1992 to 1997, compared with 19% statewide. Madison was the first city in Wisconsin to pass a smoking ban, in 1993. Several other Dane County communities followed quickly and also saw gains in spending.
Industry unharmed, study says
A 1994 study reported in the American Journal of Public Health found no adverse economic effects on the restaurant industry in 15 cities that had enacted smoking bans. The tobacco industry attacked that study as flawed. And, though the researchers conceded minor errors on their part, they stood by their findings in a 1997 revisit of that study.
"What we know, from the reams of studies around the country, is that these bans do not hurt the industry as a whole," said Jill Ness, director of grass-root development with SmokeFree Wisconsin in Madison.
That's true, said Lump of the state Restaurant Association: "Overall, there is more fear than substance to the idea that these bans hurt the restaurant industry."
But that does not negate the very real losses experienced by some businesses, he said.
Bill and Gary Anderson, the second-generation owners of Andy's Restaurant in Kenosha, say they lost 27% in gross sales the first year after the city enacted its smoking ban in 2000. Their other eatery, the oldies-theme Andy's Drive In, dropped 18%, they said.
The brothers won a two-year exemption but have been smoke-free now since July.
"We're down about 12% now, so it's better," Bill Anderson said. "But we lost a lot of customers, some we knew 20 years. They could go a mile and a half, two miles down the road to a restaurant where there are no restrictions."
Aliota confirms that, noting that the George Webb restaurant in Pleasant Prairie picked up about 15% to 20% more business when its neighbors in Kenosha went smoke-free.
No rush of non-smokers
Some smokers have found their way back to Andy's, Bill Anderson said. But what has not materialized is the rush of non-smokers that ban advocates argued would clamor to dine at his restaurant.
"We were told to expect an influx of non-smokers, and that has not occurred," Anderson said.
Aliota insists that restaurants in Wauwatosa will see similar losses as diners flee to Milwaukee, Brookfield and other border communities where smoking is not prohibited.
"They're creating an island," said Aliota, who thinks it would be more prudent for the city to wait for a countywide or statewide ban.
"I just hope the Common Council is prepared for the economic impact," she said. "This is going to hurt, not just our business, but a lot of ancillary businesses where our patrons shop."
Ness, of SmokeFree Wisconsin, doesn't believe that will happen. But she added: "In this case public health should trump any perceived economic loss."
From the Nov. 17, 2003 editions of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
