Some claim success with smoking ban

By Robbie Dingeman
Advertiser Health Writer

A year after opponents of a restaurant smoking ban warned that the new law would significantly hurt business, the industry is projecting modest growth in sales statewide.

The National Restaurant Association predicts that Hawai'i restaurants will see a 3 percent increase in revenues this year — more than double last year's 1.3 percent growth rate. The numbers are adjusted for inflation and reflect actual growth, said Steven Grover, the restaurant association's vice president for health and safety regulatory affairs.

O'ahu's ban on smoking in restaurants took effect July 1, 2002. Maui and Kaua'i counties banned restaurant smoking as of Jan. 1. The Hawai'i County Council is on the verge of passing its own smoking restrictions.

Julian Lipsher, an anti-smoking advocate with the state Department of Health, said the laws have been accepted by visitors and residents.

"This has been extraordinarily successful," he said. "There have been no citations (against restaurants) and a minimum of complaints."

But Michele Van Hessen, president of the Hawaii Restaurant Association, remains adamantly opposed to the ban, calling it an infringement on individual rights.

"Any form of regulating social conduct is a form of fascism," she said.

Van Hessen said Hawai'i restaurant sales growth would be higher without the smoking restriction, and she thinks it hurts tourism.

"Around the world, 1 billion people smoke," she said. "You have just told a billion people around the world not to come. There's going to be a tremendous impact on tourism."

"I haven't had anybody complain about it since the ban," Hirasa said. "Even some smokers say they don't want to deal with the secondhand smoke when they're eating."

He said business has been about the same as it was before the ban was enacted.

Grover said smoking bans affect different restaurants in different ways. In California and other places that have had such bans longer, fast-food restaurants tend to gain business while sit-down restaurants lose smoking customers, he said.

He said some fine-dining restaurants lose revenue because smokers cut short their time there.

"People still came and they ate the meal, but they didn't stick around for brandy and dessert and a cigarette," he said.

He said California has seen "almost an explosion of outside seating areas" to accommodate smokers. He said the national association believes that business, not government, should decide whether or not to allow smoking. .

Flamingo Enterprises, which runs three family-style Flamingo restaurants on O'ahu, has seen its bar sales drop about 25 percent, but an increase in food sales has made up for the loss, vice president Jean Shimabukuro said.

Shimabukuro said some customers have said they won't be back because they can't smoke there anymore, but that initial skepticism among other customers as well as employees has turned to support for the policy.

"We think it's a good thing for our customers and our employees," Shimabukuro said.

Tanya Phillips, general manager at Ryan's Grill at Ward Centre, said people go outside to smoke. "It really hasn't had any effect on us."

Honolulu Police Department spokeswoman Michelle Yu said there have been no arrests or citations for violations of the restaurant smoking ban during its first year.

City spokeswoman Carol Costa said that the Department of Planning and Permitting is responsible for enforcing sign regulations in the new ordinance and that most restaurants have been cooperative.

"We have received a handful of complaints relating to restaurants/bars failing to post signs or wording them improperly," Costa said. Some notices of violations were issued but all were corrected before any fines were assessed, she said.

Some smokers said they like the new law. After a recent breakfast at Dot's in Wahiawa, Kehau Yuen and two friends went on a smoke break outside. They said they don't smoke in their houses or cars, so the restaurant restrictions make sense to them.

"It's a good thing," Yuen said. "When I eat, I don't like anybody blowing smoke in my face. It's common courtesy."

Reach Robbie Dingeman at rdingeman@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2429.