Business hazy one year after smoking ban

A year ago today, one of the nation’s toughest indoor air pollution laws forced bars and restaurants in Washington to show smokers the door.

Some taverns have lost money as their patrons now go home to smoke and imbibe there instead, but health officials say violations of the indoor smoking ban are becoming rare.

“Primarily our written warnings and our citations have been at the beginning of when the law took effect,” said Julie Graham, a spokeswoman for the Spokane Regional Health District.

A special phone line has fielded more than 200 complaints in the last year, and health officers have conducted random checks to make sure businesses keep smokers outside and away from doors or vents.

Of those that didn’t, 24 have been fined. Two reached settlements with the health district, and a court has demanded that two others come into compliance.

At the Yardley Bar and Grill in Spokane Valley, patrons kept smoking for a while as its owner argued in court that the new law is unconstitutional.

A judge disagreed, and this summer the owner and the bar’s patrons pitched in to shelter smokers in an extension to the building with fans, heat, airconditioning and even two TVs.

“This place is in full compliance” said Jon Pansie, a longtime patron and former employee at the bar.

Nonetheless, he said, business has diminished a lot since the ban took effect. While Pansie noted that he completely respects the businesses that chose to go smoke-free, his argument against compelling all bars to follow suit is simple:

“If you don’t want to work there, don’t work there. If you don’t want to go there, don’t go there.”

The financial impact on bars and restaurants statewide since the law took effect has been mixed.

The gross business income at bars decreased 4 percent in the first half of this year compared with the first half of 2005, according to data compiled by the Department of Revenue.

Within that, income from services like gambling dropped 20 percent, but retail sales for things like liquor and food actually increased by almost 4 percent.

Although the numbers cannot prove a causal relationship between sales and the smoking ban, the working theory is that many people who smoke and gamble likely took their business to places like Indian casinos where smoking is allowed, said department spokesman Mike Gowrylow.

Some of those who left were either replaced by nonsmokers, or the remaining clientele spent more money.

Full-service restaurants fared better during the first half of this year. Their retail sales increased about 8 percent.

At the local level, the biggest factor in the law’s effect seems to lie with the clientele of a given business.

“I have a lot of smokers who don’t smoke outside,” said Shiao-Hui Lee who owns Scotty’s Sullivan Scoreboard.

Instead, she said, they go home, and her receipts have decreased 30 percent to 40 percent since a year ago.

For the remainder of her smoking customers, Lee set up an Army-surplus tent with a heater on the back patio, which sometimes all but a few of her customers will shuffle into for 10 or 15 minutes at the same time.

While many diners miss pairing a Camel with their cup or coffee or a Marlboro with their Miller Lite, others have started bringing their children to restaurants where they wouldn’t before on account of the smoky air.

“It just creates so much of a cleaner environment,” said Katie Williams, whose family owns O’Doherty’s Irish Pub in Spokane Valley.

They voluntarily went smoke-free a year before the initiative that created the smoking ban went before voters.

“We haven’t lost any clientele from it,” she said.

A few faces at the bar disappeared when they couldn’t smoke inside.

But once the smoke cleared, others began bringing their kids in for the first time.

Sales there have increased about 20 percent over last year, Williams said.