Scarcnet News Summaries (Advocacy Institute)
Editorial Declares California's Smokefree Bar Ordinance A Success
Length: pages
Abstract
An editorial in the SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS looks at California's year-old ban on smoking in bars and considers it a success: "It was a widely held opinion one year ago that banning smoking in bars was a waste of time. Such a ban would be impossible to enforce, critics said.Bartenders would never force people to have their beer without a cigarette. Yet the first year of California's ban has been a qualified success. While a small, vocal group of bar owners and patrons openly defies the law, most bars are smoke-free. Statewide estimates of compliance range from 68 percent for stand-alone bars to 90 percent for combination bar-restaurants. Not perfect, but not bad for a law that was suppose to be unenforceable. . . . But the law doesn't have to put out every cigarette in every bar to be a success. A year ago, it was nearly impossible for non-smokers to sit in a bar or work in one without breathing cigarette smoke. Today, it's the smokers who have to hunt for a place to light up. That's progress."
Source: Editorial, "Smoking Is On The Rocks," SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS (on-line), January 4, 1999.