Health departments don't have the staff to keep up
Jump to full article: Cincinnati (OH) Enquirer, 2008-05-02
Author: JOHN ECKBERG
Intro: After Ohio began enforcing a voter-approved ban on smoking May 3, 2007, Casey complied.
But after seeing business drop, he relented, telling his staff to let smoking happen inside if customers were adamant about it.
"All my competitors were letting customers smoke. So we did, too," he says.
A few complaints and a couple of fines later, Casey changed his mind again. Now smokers retreat to a patio when they need a cigarette.
"My customers - probably 60 percent are smokers," Casey says.
Casey's see-sawing shows the struggle that bar owners are having complying with the law. . . .
Shelly Kiser, director of advocacy for the American Lung Association of Ohio, is dubious about reports of falling bar revenues and said she thinks that supporters have been told in an orchestrated campaign to say their receipts are off 30 percent.
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