Implementing in Particular Sites - Restaurants, Bars, and Other Hospitality Sites

Smokefree Air Everywhere is New Jersey GASP's book-length why and how manual for decision makers in workplaces and public places, and includes a special chapter for restaurants that's available here (see below). Since that book was published, there's been a veritable mountain of additional information supporting smokefree policies and legislation, and there's been a vast change in attitudes and behaviors in response to that new information, culminating in hundreds of state and local smokefree air laws, including, of course, the New Jersey Smoke-Free Air Act (NJ SFAA).

Highlights of the updated information, plus recent New Jersey-specific information and implementation suggestions, are on this page. To view the Restaurants chapter of Smokefree Air Everywhere, click here.

The new, stronger reasons for smokefree restaurants are emerging almost daily. Four main areas are covered on this page: (1) many additional scientific studies document even greater harm from secondhand smoke; (2) many more state and local laws require restaurants to be smokefree; (3) more economic findings and empirical data verify that smokefree environments have positive or neutral impact on restaurant business; and (4) far more restaurants in New Jersey and elsewhere have voluntarily adopted smokefree policies.

Updated reasons for smokefree laws and policies

Secondhand smoke health hazards

Secondhand smoke hurts people in as little as 30 minutes. Healthy nonsmokers who enter a smoke-filled room show almost immediate changes in their blood, changes that can result in heart disease and stroke. In 2004, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and the Medical Society of New Jersey warned people, especially those at risk of heart disease, to avoid tobacco smoke pollution. The warnings came after a study in Helena, Montana, where heart attacks decreased when the city instituted a smokefree air law, but rose quickly to the original level after Helena suspended the ordinance (in a jurisdictional dispute with the state).

Secondhand smoke is now linked to breast cancer in nonsmoking women, according to a number of studies, and in 2005 the California EPA declared the data sufficient to prove causality. Younger women are particularly likely to work in restaurants and bars, where exposure and hazards are high. More than half the nation's food service workers were not protected from secondhand smoke, even though food service is the fourth-largest occupation in the United States and employs nearly 7,000,000 workers, according to a study in the April, 2004 Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, based on more than 250,000 indoor workers interviewed for the U.S. Current Population Survey.

Workers in bars, bowling alleys, and gambling sites faced nicotine concentrations in their workplaces that were 2.4 to 18.5 times higher than in offices, and 14 of every 1,000 of those workers will die from lung cancer attributable to their workplace exposure, according to a study from the Boston University School of Public Health, published in the December 2003 issue of the international journal Tobacco Control.

But in California, the first state in the nation to make bars smokefree, bartenders showed marked improvement in their respiratory health in just a few months after the 1998 law went into effect. In Madison, Wisconsin, researchers at the University of Wisconsin Comprehensive Cancer Center surveyed 400 bartenders and found that workers' shortness of breath and coughing were cut by 40 percent within only a few months of the city's smokefree air law being implemented. The Cancer Center researchers also performed lung function testing on 73 nonsmoking bartenders and found significant improvement after the ordinance went into effect, in a study released in February, 2006.

These are among the reasons that the New Jersey Smoke-Free Air Act begins with, "The Legislature finds and declares that tobacco smoke constitutes a substantial health hazard to the nonsmoking majority."

Smokefree air laws are proliferating

By the April 15, 2006 effective date of New Jersey's Smoke-Free Air Act, 17 other states and Puerto Rico already had 100% smokefree air laws for workplaces and/or restaurants and/or bars. Eleven of the states and Puerto Rico include restaurants and bars in their laws. In addition, more than 2,000 U.S. municipalities and counties had local legislation restricting smoking and approximately 450 municipalities in 33 states had 100% smokefree laws for workplaces and/or restaurants/ and/or bars.

So, before the New Jersey law went into effect, more than 40% of the U.S. population already was covered by 100% smokefree laws. New Jersey's population adds another 3% to that total. For a current list of state and local smokefree air legislation, from Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights, click here.

Additionally, as New Jersey's state law went into effect, many Canadian provinces and a growing number of countries around the globe had national smokefree air laws. The nations included Cuba, Bermuda, Ireland, Scotland, Sweden, Norway, Spain, Italy, Malta, Bhutan, India, and Uganda.

Economics of smokefree environments

As smokefree air laws for restaurants, bars, and other hospitality sites increase, there are more and more economic evaluations, based on empirical data like sales tax returns, official government labor statistics, etc, and performed by government agencies and academic researchers, often published in peer-reviewed, scientific journals, that document smokefree environments are positive or neutral for the bottom line of hospitality businesses.

Smokefree Air Everywhere reports on a number of the earlier studies and discusses the various ways that smoking and secondhand smoke can have negative impact on the bottom line, especially for restaurants (to see that chapter, click here). Two sources for up-to-the-minute economic information are www.tobaccoscam.org, a website specializing on the economics of smokefree restaurants and bars, and www.no-smoke.org, the website of Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights.

Restaurants, etc., increasingly choose to be smokefree

Throughout New Jersey and the nation, individual and chain restaurants, bars, hotels, resorts, and casinos are voluntarily implementing smokefree policies. Some of the dozens of smokefree restaurant chains are Au Bon Pain, Legal Seafood, Pizza Hut, and Starbucks (worldwide). Westin Hotel and Resorts went smokefree in January 2006.

To see the success stories of four smokefree restaurants and bars in New Jersey, click here.

New Jersey-specific reasons for smokefree laws and policies

Air pollution in New Jersey restaurants, bars

Air testing in New Jersey restaurants and bars in August and September, 2005, proved that, on average, air pollution was eight times as high in smoking-permitted restaurants as in smokefree restaurants and that smoking-permitted bars were 28 times as polluted as smokefree bars. For employees, whose exposure was longer than patrons' exposure, restaurant workers in smoking-permitted sites were exposed to pollution levels two and one-half times the EPA standard, and bar workers were exposed to pollution levels eight times as high as the EPA standard. Both types of sites were even more polluted than casino gaming floors, which also were tested.

The testing, in 13 of New Jersey's 21 counties, was the most extensive such investigation ever conducted in one U.S. state, and was performed by New Jersey GASP, in partnership with the American Cancer Society, and under the direction of the Roswell Park Cancer Institute. To see more information about the testing, including the news release, charts of the primary results, and the full scientific report authored by Roswell Park Cancer Institute and New Jersey GASP, click here.

Voluntarily smokefree New Jersey restaurants

New Jersey GASP's on-line database of 100% smokefree restaurants and bars in New Jersey lists almost 4,000 individual restaurants, approximately 150 smokefree bars, plus restaurant chains with smokefree policies that included hundreds of outlets. For several years before implementation of the NJ SFAA, new restaurants were being added to that online directory at the rate of more than one a day. (To search the database, click here.) In early 2006, the New Jersey Restaurant Association maintained that 2/3 of New Jersey restaurants were smokefree (though many allowed smoking in their bars).

To see the success stories of four smokefree restaurants and bars in New Jersey, click here.

Updated information on implementing smokefree environments in restaurants and bars

Implementation has become easier and easier, largely because of the new information above, plus the changes in attitudes and behaviors that have occurred in response to that new information. The NJ SFAA takes the decision to be smokefree out of the hands of owners and managers and many New Jersey restaurateurs have said they welcome that; now they can just tell patrons and employees, "It's the law."

To see hundreds of New Jersey restaurants that have been voluntarily and happily smokefree for years, or to contact other owners and managers in your area or with restaurants similar to yours, consult New Jersey GASP's on-line smokefree dining directory.

The implementation suggestions in Smokefree Air Everywhere, in the Restaurants chapter, were designed for restaurants creating voluntary policies (click here to see that chapter). Here are some specific suggestions for implementing the NJ SFAA in your restaurant or bar:

First, remember management has the primary responsibility for setting the tone in any establishment. A positive and firm attitude will smooth implementation.

As you consider what you'll do to implement the NJ SFAA, focus on the smoking, not the smoker. Remembering this can help you think clearly and communicate cleanly. For instance, people who smoke are welcome. Smoking isn't. If an employee takes too much time away from work to smoke, treat it as you would any other abuse of break time. If smokers complain you're making them go outside into the cold or heat or rain, recognize it's their nicotine addiction that is "driving them outside".

Patrons and employees must be notified that the NJ SFAA mandates a smokefree environment. The Act requires signs at every public entrance, with letters at least one inch high or with the international no smoking symbol (a stylized depiction of a burning cigarette, inside a circle, with a diagonal slash across the circle). The Act also requires that the sign specify that there is a fine for violations. Signs in the restrooms or storage rooms or other places patrons or employees might try to smoke are a good idea. Downloadable signs will be available soon.

Remove ashtrays, matches, and other smoking paraphernalia. Consider eliminating tobacco ads and vending machines. Provide receptacles outside entrances for the safe and not-unattractive disposal of cigarettes and other debris of smoking.

People don't like to be told what to do. So, instead of telling people not to smoke, or to step outside, just tell them, "It's against the law to smoke indoors in New Jersey." Most people can figure out how to respond to that fact. Remember the NJ SFAA does require employers and proprietors to notify individual smokers who are violating the Act about the law, and the regulations will also specify enforcement procedures and proprietors' responsibilities.

To handle resistant smokers, just cite the law and don't get drawn into arguments. Use the "broken record" assertiveness technique, for a dialogue like this: "Sir, it's against the law to smoke indoors in New Jersey." "Really?" "Yes, we're covered by the new smokefree air law." "But I just lit up." "It's illegal to smoke here." "Are you telling me to put it out?" "The New Jersey Smoke-Free Air Act makes indoor places smokefree and requires me to tell patrons about the law." "Do you want me to leave?" "No, you're very welcome. But New Jersey law makes this place smokefree."

If you decide to provide an outdoor smoking-permitted area, ensure that smoke doesn't enter indoors through doors, windows, or air-intake openings. Check New Jersey Department of Health regulations to see that your outdoor area meets State requirements and that any weather protection you provide outdoors does not constitute an enclosed place. Provide for safe and not-unattractive disposal of the debris of smoking. And remember that more than 80% of New Jerseyans are nonsmokers and will want to enjoy outdoor dining and drinking in a smokefree environment.

For tobacco dependence treatment assistance for employees, click here.

Since 1974, New Jersey GASP has been helping people create smokefree environments. Again and again they say, "It was much easier than we thought it would be. We should have done it years ago." You, too, can have that success and pleasure. This guide was created to ensure that you do. Good luck. And, to your good health! Do contact New Jersey GASP if you have any questions.

Please note: The information presented on this website is not intended as, nor to be construed, or used, as legal advice, and should not be used to replace the advice of your legal counsel.

This page updated April 4, 2006.