On Tuesday, Iowa Governor Chet Culver signed a tough no-smoking bill that will prohibit smoking in all public places including bars and restaurants. Exempt from the ban are the state's Veterans care facilities and casinos. Iowa is the 22nd state in the nation to ban smoking in most public places. There are 10 other states who have some sort of limited public smoking ban. I was rather surprised when I saw that number. Surprised in that I didn't know that many states had passed legislation before Iowa.
My wife is a big supporter of no smoking in bars and restaurants. If we've been out to a bar with friends, we have to peel our clothes off in the bathroom and send 'em down the laundry chute so the cigarette smell doesn't contaminate the bedroom before we go to bed.
Now, I don't smoke and I never have. I don't mind if my friends do, but I also implore them to stop from time to time. I use my mother as the prime example - a long-time smoker, she died of cancer at the age of 62. That's 10 years away from where I'm at right now. That's too young.
I just lost a good friend yesterday - an audio/video manufacturer's representative - at the age of 56 from cancer. He told me he smoked since he was 13. He was diagnosed over a year ago, the doctor gave him three to six months. He lasted thirteen.
This morning, my buddy Randy Adams told me that a friend in his 50's had a heart attack and had massive blockage in his main arteries. He'd already HAD procedures to get rid of the blockage before. And, yes, he's a smoker.
My sister just had an operation to open the arteries in her leg. The doctor told her to quit smoking. We were back in Kellogg for the funeral of an uncle last weekend and we went over to the bar for a beer after the service. She was smoking. I know it's tough to quit, but when the doctor says to quit to help save your life, then do something to help you quit.
With all that said, the public outcry regarding the ban - as you can imagine - is hot and heavy across the state. The owners of many small bars and restaurants say they'll go out of business if their patrons aren't able to smoke. But the most vocal are the smokers, while the non-smokers - a large majority of people in the state of Iowa - are silently applauding the ban.
When Madison, WI proposed a smoking ban in all public places, my friend, Paul Zach, who owns the Avenue Bar in Madison, was one of the leaders of the faction to oppose the ban. He was worried that he'd lose business as many of his patrons were smokers who would come in for drinks and dinner. It turned out that his business actually GREW after the ban went into effect.
Locally, Tappa's Steakhouse on the lower west side of Davenport went smoke free on January 1 of this year - voluntarily. In the March 24th edition of The Quad City Times, co-owner Jan Tappa said she was "worried to death that if we banned smoking, our business would suffer big-time."
However, in January business at Tappa's was up 25 percent and in February it was up 30 percent. She said that should show some people that the ban can help business.
Tappa did say at the time that she was on the side of restaurant and bar owners who were lobbying against the ban. "Make it voluntary," she said. "If they want to allow smoking, let 'em smoke. Don't legislate it."
And I'm kind of the same way - let the owners decide. I know some bar owners - especially those selling food - would have loved to kick smokers out of their places long ago. But they were afraid to alienate a small core of their patrons. Instead, they decided to let the Iowa legislature be the bad guy in all of this.
Still, there's a number of small bars that don't serve food. I can see where those places may have a problem with the ban. There are a number of those places in the Quad Cities - including a little bar called the Dam View Inn where friends of mine congregate after work. It's a little hole in the wall place - a real dive. But they have good beer prices and it's a good little place to unwind and cut loose after work. But it doesn't serve food.
Places like the Dam View - that don't serve food - should be exempted from the smoking ban. Now, not everyone who goes into those places are smokers. In fact, one day I took notice of the 17 or so people in the Dam View and counted the smokers. At that time there were just two people who were smokers. A couple more showed up later, but the vast majority in the place were non-smokers. Non-smokers who didn't seem to care there were others in there smoking.
I'll appreciate the ban when it comes to Iowa. I will say that we've been going over to Illinois for food and drinks a little more lately because of the statewide smoking ban that went into effect there earlier this year. But I'm hoping the smoking ban doesn't hurt the little places in Iowa or Illinois. I think, however, in the long run it will do nothing but help their overall business.
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