THE ON-GOING SMOKING BAN

Well, we are well into the no smoking ban and it is generating interesting effects on just about everyone. When one bar in the area honored the ban at 12:00 midnight one half of the bar cheered and the other half booed. The law is still a little sketchy regarding the regulations. The law making people go twenty-five feet from the building is not passed yet. If you have outside seating the people can smoke unless there is a window where the smoke may entire the building. In our case the whole front of the building is two giant windows. The garden for smoking we provided is working. Smokers are using it and thanking us for the consideration.

Many of us are waiting to see what the ban does to the restaurant and bar business. I believe it will have a positive affect as those who use to shun the bars loaded with smoke now are happy to go to the bars any night. If you smoke and go out for the evening you do everything you always did except that you step outside to smoke the same way you do at work. Truthfully my staff and I love it. The bartenders, even the ones that smoke, feel better through out the evening and are not getting tired as easily as before. Dry eyes and a late night cough for the bar staff has all but disappeared.

As I walked from the dining room into the bar area my body and sense of smell readied itself for the smoke that was always there. When it wasn’t…. I stopped short surprised by my trained reaction of thirty-six years to a second hand smoke environment. It surprised me a couple of times again and I realized it would be awhile before my reparative trained reaction would change. The restaurant/bar area has not needed the heavy window cleaning as often as it did before and the walls should stay cleaner. This should hold true for condensers, heating coils and air filter systems…. oh yeah, and our lungs.

A lot of my customers both smokers and non smokers have been saying how much better it is inside the bar area without the smoke. You don’t realize how few cigarettes are needed to full an area with second hand smoke. It makes me wonder how many health problems are manifesting themselves, in all generations, from the second hand smoke that was generated by our parents in the home, in our work places and public areas.