Plan among strictest in U.S.
BOSTON — For Jay McGwire, Churchill's cigar bar is a place to relax and strike up conversations while sipping a stout and smoking a cigar.
"I come here and I meet nice people," McGwire said. "And I can't smoke cigars in my house."
But McGwire worries that eventually he will not be able to light up at Churchill's, either. The Boston Public Health Commission is proposing some of the nation's strictest smoking regulations, banning the sale of cigarettes at drugstores and on college campuses, and shutting down the city's 10 cigar and hookah bars by 2013.
The goal, the commission said, is to discourage young people from buying tobacco products, to keep a harmful product out of stores that promote health and to protect employees who are exposed to secondhand smoke.
The city Board of Health will vote on the regulations Nov. 13. If approved, they will take effect within 60 days.
"Should tobacco be treated as any other consumer good? No," said Barbara Ferrer, director of the Board of Health. "We don't sell guns everywhere, we don't sell alcohol everywhere and we don't need to be selling tobacco everywhere. They're all dangerous products, and they all require regulation."
The proposal has angered smokers and small-business leaders, who say pharmacies and cigar bars are being singled out unfairly.
"We believe, frankly, it's discriminatory," said Jon Hurst, president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts, which represents small businesses, including
pharmacies. "It's tying the hands of sellers and consumers alike, and that isn't what government should be about."
People who want to smoke and employees of the establishments where they still can say their rights are being threatened.
"They shouldn't be in the business of putting local businesses out of business," said Drinnan Thornton, a bartender at Churchill's. "It's an issue of free choice. Cigar lounges aren't frequented by people who don't smoke."
Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who championed the workplace smoking ban in 2003 but who has not taken a public position on the Health Commission's ban, says steps should be taken to keep tobacco products away from young people, but that the financial well-being of small businesses should be considered.
Look What's Happening in New York - Does this surprise anybody?
By Marlene Naanes
That haze hanging over the bar late at night isn’t just a beer fog.
Violations for smoking inside bars and restaurants jumped by a third in the past year, which comes as no surprise to nonsmokers, who complain that bartenders are increasingly blowing off the five-year-old smoking ban.
The health department said the bump follows a jump in inspectors conducting late-night checks. But some bargoers say the numbers reflect what they can smell on their clothes each night.
“I go out a lot, and I definitely notice it…all over the place,” said Susan Siegel, a Manhattan resident who says bars and clubs on the Lower East Side and in the Meatpacking District are the worst offenders. “I hate smoking in bars.”
And nonsmokers say it’s about to get worse: As winter approaches, the prime season for illegal indoor smoking is set to begin.
The number of smoking violations doled out to bars and restaurants increased to 917 infractions in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2008, compared to 694 in the same period the year before. Health department inspectors started going out later at night when places are more likely to allow patrons, or even employees, to light up, a spokeswoman said.
“The last thing a restaurant owner is going to think is an inspector is going to be there,” said Celina De Leon, a health department spokeswoman, who added that inspectors can be out as late as 4 a.m.
She would not speculate if people’s behavior changed.
“There’s no way to know if this happens at all bars at night,” she said. “We’re not there 24-7.”
While smoky bars still exist, some smokers insist they are by no means easy to find.
Mark Benkes was smoking outside a bar on the Lower East Side on a recent night, and he perhaps put it best: "You'll find people doing blow more openly than smoking."
Still, smokers say plenty of renegade bars exist, especially on the Lower East Side, but people treat them like a secret stash of joy. Gavin Motnyk, 28, said he knew of several places where people smoke, and he even offered to take a reporter and photographer to one, but then backtracked.
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Motnyk said he does not mind the ban because smoking less saves him money, but he complained about how the regulation is making bar owners treat their smoking customers.
"When you smoke outside, there's more noise outside," he said. "They make smokers go 100 feet, 50 feet down the block."
While drinking holes still flout the anti-smoking regulation, the height of violations occurred during the first two years of the ban. In 2003 and 2004, smoking violations made up about 11 percent of restaurant inspections, while now it represents only 6 percent.
Still, Siegel says indoor smoking is rampant, and has even felt the urge to demand that a SoHo bar pay her dry cleaning bill. Sometimes she cannot get staff — who sometimes smoke themselves — to stop smokers, despite fines ranging from $200 to $2,000.
“I go up to people,” she said. “It’s the law and I feel like I have a right to say something.”
Jed Kim contributed to this report.
Top smoking ban violators
Establishment: Number of violations
Florio's Restaurant & Pizzeria 21
192 Grand St.
Manhattan
World Cup Night Club 20
13431 35th Ave.
Queens
Cafe Korza 20
652 E. 187th Street
Bronx
18 Club 19
131-66 40th Road
Queens
Portofino Café 18
2008 Williamsbridge Road
Bronx
Kalymnos Society 18
2403 31st St.
Queens
Havana Dreams Cigar Lounge 18
6310 Woodhaven Blvd
Queens
Queens Village 18
220-27 Jamaica Ave.
Queens
Home 16
542 W. 27th St.
Manhattan
Coco Bar 16
131-37 A 41st Ave.
Queens
Source: New York City Department of Health
* For the year through August 2008
Violations are largely for smoking indoors, but some reflect the presence of ashtrays and the absence of no-smoking signs.
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The number of smoking violations by fiscal year*:
Number of Number of Violation rate
Violations Inspections
2008 917 14,399 6.4 percent
2007 694 20,006 3.5 percent
2006 481 23,429 2.1 percent
2005 437 25,471 1.7 percent
2004 3,091 26,765 11.5 percent
2003 2,268 21,781 10.4 percent
Source: New York City Department of Health
The period covers July 1 through June 30
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Smokeless tobacco offers an increasingly popular and legal way to get a nicotine fix at bars and restaurants.
Sales of chew, dip and other forms of smokeless tobacco soared nationally by about 26 percent as cigarette sales dropped by almost 14 percent, according to a recent Harvard School of Public Health study that surveyed its use from 2000-06. The study partially attributed the growth to clean indoor-air policies.
Less messier types of smokeless tobacco, such as teabag-like Snus, as well as lower sales taxes compared to cigarettes, also contributed to the increase, particularly among young people, the study found.
-- Marlene Naanes
