Jump to full article: Nation's Restaurant News, 2009-10-12
Author: The Lewiston Morning Tribune; Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services, 2009.
Intro: Smokefree Idaho commissioned a study of bars and restaurants in the Treasure Valley. Included were 14 bars where smoking was permitted.
Conducted by staffers from the Roswell Park Cancer Institute of Buffalo, N.Y., the review analyzed air samples and found the following:
-- Air quality in smoke-filled bars wasn't merely unhealthy but deemed to be hazardous. . . .
For 24 states, including Washington and the tobacco-growing state of North Carolina, extending smoking bans to bars and taverns is just one more way of protecting the public health. So far, none has seen the new policy undermine bar and restaurant traffic. In fact, New York offered a waiver to any bar that could demonstrate no smoking meant less trade.
Now Smokefree Idaho is pushing to extend the smoking bans to bars in 10 to 12 Idaho cities. All of which should tell Moscow's bar owners one thing: Their community may have been the first in Idaho to protect the health of bar and tavern workers. But it won't be last.
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