A mandatory smoking ban in restaurants: concerns versus experiences

The purpose of this study was (a) to assess the concerns of restaurant representatives about a city ordinance that prohibited smoking in all restaurants prior to its enactment and (b) to determine if these concerns were realized 15 months after the ordinance had been in effect. Representatives from 34 randomly selected restaurants participated in both the pre- and post-interviews. Although 26.5 percent of the respondents were concerned that the ordinance would be difficult to enforce, 94 percent found the ordinance easy or very easy to enforce. While some customers appeared to have negative reactions to an ordinance that prohibited smoking, four times that many appeared to have positive reactions to the ordinance. Although approximately 12 percent of the respondents indicated that the ordinance had "a slightly negative effect on employees", the majority (88.2%) felt that the ordinance had either no effect or a positive effect on employees. Most respondents believed that the ordinance would have no effect on their business and most reported that the ordinance had no or no know effect on business. Although many restaurant representatives had concerns about a non-smoking ordinance prior to its enactment, restaurant representatives' self-reported experience with the ordinance suggests that most of these concerns were not realized.