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Bars Throw Up Shelters To Protect Puffing Patrons; Dancers Huddle in Robes
Jump to full article: The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition, 2007-12-27
Author: Jim Carlton
Intro: Life in Anchorage is going to be miserable "from now until May," said Mr. Duggan as he sat morosely on a wooden bench outside the bar one recent evening when the temperature was in the 20s. Shivering in a T-shirt as he puffed on a Camel Ultra Light, Mr. Duggan noted that at least his seat inside was safe. He had put a bar-issued placeholder with a puffin bird's image on it that read "Gone Puffin" next to his bar stool.
As Anchorage settles in for its first winter with smoke-free bars, smokers across the state's biggest city are scrambling to deal with having to light up outside. Some sneak out in their indoor clothes. Others bundle themselves up repeatedly throughout the night. Some are doing what was once unthinkable: cutting back on their habit. And Anchorage's taverns and bingo parlors are rushing to erect makeshift outdoor smoking tents, shacks and other shelters.
At the Pioneer Bar downtown, workers a few weeks ago put up a plywood shack atop cinder blocks in an adjacent parking lot. The unheated, 200-square-foot shelter has plastic strips serving as a door. . . .
More than 30 states and hundreds of cities nationwide have passed indoor-smoking bans in recent years. But the issue is particularly heated in Alaska, which has the fifth-highest smoking rate in the country -- not to mention the coldest winters. According to a 2006 survey by the Centers for Disease Control, 24% of adults in Alaska smoke, compared with a national average of 21%.
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