Tobacco.org

Smoking ban effects mixed  

Nearly two months after a statewide smoking ban took effect, Des Moines area bartenders report mixed results: Some see no change in business, others say profits are noticeably down.

Amber Todwin, a bartender at Stix in Ankeny, said summer months are always slow, but business at the pool hall has suffered since the ban. Since the bar has no patio, smokers hang out in front of the building. Some nonsmokers tell her it's even worse having to walk through the cloud of smoke to get in the bar than it was to sit in the ventilated area inside. . . .

Smoking is still allowed in fairgrounds, casinos and on bar patios. The patio rule is a stickler for many bars that also serve food, since the state defines a bar as a place that doesn't serve food. A coalition of bar owners, Choose Freedom Iowa, filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn the ban.

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