Tobacco Documents Online

Daily Telegraph 13th November 1995 Page 14 • • US smokers turn tables on bistros By Charies Laurence ' in New York SMOKERS arr abandoning New York restaurants where they have been forbidden to exhale their sm oke under the cityy's• Smoke Free Air Act,. according to a study of the effects of the controver'sial '°prohibition" law. The Cornell University study found that 37 per cent of smokers are eating out less often than they did before the law •took effect last April. This coafirmed' the com- plaints of most -restaura- teurs, whose business has droppcd by up to 10 per cent. ' The study aisa confirmed that the brasserie. bistro or bar and tobacco smoke go together. smokers still spend more time and money in res- taurants than ncn•staokers, ~ even after the post•law : decline. i But the city counal, which ' imposed the law against the protests of restaurateurs and smokers, took comfort from the finding that 17 per cent of non-scmokets were noM+ eat- ing out more. ' The smokers encountercd at 19 Manhattan restaurants ate out for an average of 6•6 meals a week, compared to 5•6 for non-smokers, and spent $133-24 (£86) on aver- age compared to the tobacco- free's $l 11-45 (£72). New York, both sides of thc argumenr asrcc. is a special case. Across Amer- ica. the middle classes who F tronisc restaurants have gely stopped smoking. .