Eating Your Food in Peace

A 1996 Angus Reid poll found that 39% of people would eat at a smoke-free restaurant more often, 46% said they wouldn't change their normal habits, and 16% said they would eat out less often.
             Some restaurants are worried that making smoking illegal in their own restaurant will decrease their business. However, smoke-free restaurants are universally mandated in the state of California, and they have done studies that show restaurant laws did not affect the restaurant business. .
             Smoking bans in New York City and Massachusetts also did not witness negative effects on their overall sales. Although there were initial fears from restaurant owners, the ban on smoking has actually resulted in an increase of revenue as well as business. Based on sales receipts from restaurants in New York City, researchers found that sales have actually risen two percent since January of 1995, when the ban first went into effect. The studies show there was no negative effect on job growth or income as well. .
             In Massachusetts, sales receipts showed that restaurant sales in smoke free cities rose a good four percent. Restaurant revenues in the communities that did not severely restrict smoking rose only two percent. The tobacco industry is fearful of economic losses among restaurant owners as well, however many surveys have documented that most individuals avoid restaurants and bars because of secondhand smoking.
             In more recent years, a widely increasing number of Massachusetts's communities have been adopting restaurant smoking policies. Between 1981 and 1998, more than 139 cities and towns across the state have started to enact some form of a smoking restriction in restaurants. Another study published in the Journal - "Smoky Bars and Restaurants: Who Avoids Them and Why?" reported that almost half of the non-smokers that participated in the survey said they had resisted going somewhere in order to prevent exposure to second-hand smoke.