WOW, Ireland bans smoking in pubs!

No Kicky, you're the one who stinks in your thoughts.

I just returned from Las VEgas where my sister has had part of her lung removed, strictly from smoking. I thought for sure she was leaving us and I would never know her love again, but she came through it and all I hope right now is that she will have the strength to overcome any temptation to smoke again in her lifetime.

Bars didn't want to go smokeless because they thought it'd kill business. We've seen that it hasn't really killed business.

Ireland and England is way behind compared to the USA as far as creating a healthy environment,

Restaurants, bars gain business under smoke ban

By Stephen Smith, Globe Staff | April 4, 2005

Sales and employment at Massachusetts restaurants and bars grew slightly during the first six months of a statewide smoking ban, disproving predictions that the prohibition would inflict serious damage on the hospitality industry, Harvard researchers are scheduled to report today.

t is a movement hailed as a signal public health triumph and a sweeping social shift. But an increasing body of evidence also suggests that what's good for the health of workers and patrons may also boost the bottom line of businesses.

''Now, we can tell other states considering this kind of law: 'If you implement this law, you're not only going to have a better work environment -- you don't have to affect the economics of your hospitality industry,' " said Gregory Connolly, an author of the Harvard study and former chief of the tobacco control program at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, where he was an ardent champion of initiatives to stop smoking.

The Harvard researchers reviewed state tax records for all restaurants, bars, and nightclubs from July through December of last year -- the first six months of the statewide ban -- and compared them with receipts for the comparable period in previous years.

To make an apples-to-apples comparison, the researchers took into account inflation. Even after doing that, they found that tax collections on meals rose about 9 percent after the ban went into effect compared with the July through December average for 1999 through 2003. The researchers also found that alcoholic beverage excise tax collections remained essentially steady.

Similarly, the figures showed a slight rise in the number of people working in restaurants and bars.

''We had anticipated that and projected that, but no one believed us," said Joyce Redford, director of the North Shore Tobacco Control Program, which covers nine cities and towns. ''Now look: Lo and behold, it's exactly what happened."

Even the business alliance that once stood determinedly in opposition to the ban, sending it to repeated defeats on Beacon Hill, concedes that the law has had no persistent negative effects.

Quote:

Restaurants, bars gain business under smoke ban

By Stephen Smith, Globe Staff | April 4, 2005

Sales and employment at Massachusetts restaurants and bars grew slightly during the first six months of a statewide smoking ban, disproving predictions that the prohibition would inflict serious damage on the hospitality industry, Harvard researchers are scheduled to report today.

link

Quote:

t is a movement hailed as a signal public health triumph and a sweeping social shift. But an increasing body of evidence also suggests that what's good for the health of workers and patrons may also boost the bottom line of businesses.

''Now, we can tell other states considering this kind of law: 'If you implement this law, you're not only going to have a better work environment -- you don't have to affect the economics of your hospitality industry,' " said Gregory Connolly, an author of the Harvard study and former chief of the tobacco control program at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, where he was an ardent champion of initiatives to stop smoking.

The Harvard researchers reviewed state tax records for all restaurants, bars, and nightclubs from July through December of last year -- the first six months of the statewide ban -- and compared them with receipts for the comparable period in previous years.

To make an apples-to-apples comparison, the researchers took into account inflation. Even after doing that, they found that tax collections on meals rose about 9 percent after the ban went into effect compared with the July through December average for 1999 through 2003. The researchers also found that alcoholic beverage excise tax collections remained essentially steady.

Similarly, the figures showed a slight rise in the number of people working in restaurants and bars.

''We had anticipated that and projected that, but no one believed us," said Joyce Redford, director of the North Shore Tobacco Control Program, which covers nine cities and towns. ''Now look: Lo and behold, it's exactly what happened."

Even the business alliance that once stood determinedly in opposition to the ban, sending it to repeated defeats on Beacon Hill, concedes that the law has had no persistent negative effects.

the effect on business was much the same in Toronto when the smoking ban came in.

How about some specifics about which businesses are the ones that get hurt, or have had to fold because of it?

I'm just saying that I feel for those sole-proprietorships who have had their nice little divey bars and have gone along and lived quiet lives, not bothering anyone for years, and then all of a sudden the government decides to impose this blanket bullshit law on them, and who cares if they don't have the money to pay for the new way of business? No, they just jam the f*cking law right up these people's asses, no thought at all to what might become of them. But hey, as long as that big corporate bitch chain restaurant/bar that looks exactly like every other corporate bitch chain restaurant/bar is happy, who cares, right?

It's always the small business guy that gets f*cked. Do you think the guy who is just scraping by is happy that he now has to spend thousands more to keep his little dive running? Oh wait, you don't care, because now your clothes won't smell like smoke, and you get to poison your liver without all that unhealthy smoke to hurt your nice healthy pink lungs. What a whiny little hypocritical bitch society we have become.