Posted on: Wednesday, November 7, 2001

Editorial
No smoking doesn't mean no business

For the third time since 1995, the City Council is debating whether to save or stub out a proposed ban on smoking in O'ahu restaurants.

And once again, Hawai'i's restaurant and visitor industries are lobbying against any prohibition that might drive tourists away, particularly the Japanese, who already are travel-shy in the wake of Sept. 11.

Now presumably, the bulk of visitors have survived long flights to Hawai'i without taking a puff. Japan Airlines prohibits smoking, and the flight from Tokyo to Honolulu takes seven to eight hours.

So what's a couple of smoke-free hours in a restaurant, where you have the freedom to step outside and light up?

Advocates for smokers' civil rights want us to "butt out" of their private lives, which would be fine if smoke wasn't carcinogenic and it didn't travel.

But it does.

Aside from lifting perennial tensions between restaurant smoking and nonsmoking sections, a ban on smoking would make the workplace safer for chefs, bartenders and wait staff.

More than 50,000 Americans die each year from ailments caused by exposure to secondhand smoke, according to a report by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments.

As for a smoking ban hurting the restaurant business, ask Tim Zagat, chairman of the New York Convention & Visitors Bureau and publisher of the Zagat restaurant guide series.

In 1995, New York enacted the Smoke-Free Air Act, which prohibited smoking in restaurants.

Zagat, a former smoker, says he believes the ban has had little if any effect on the Big Apple's restaurant business. If anything, he says, it's helped business because the bulk of restaurant customers appreciate a smoke-free environment.

"Why make 20 percent of your customers happy and 80 percent of your customers unhappy?" Zagat said.

Time was when workplaces and movie theaters were thick with cigarette smoke. But times have changed, and smokers have adapted.

So can Honolulu.

The City Council will debate the issue today at Honolulu Hale. The meeting begins at 10:15 a.m. Rather than shelve this good idea one more time, the council should send the bill back to committee for more work ,with the ultimate goal of approving a ban on smoking in O'ahu restaurants.