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Merits of voluntary and mandatory restrictions
weighed
by Will Sands
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| A smoker at a local bar ashes
his cigarette earlier this week. Spearheaded by the San Juan
Basin Health Department, a move is afoot in Durango to explore
the possibility of going smoke-free./Photo by Todd Newcomer. |
Smoking could become a thing of the past in Durango businesses.
On Monday, a group of local restaurateurs and business owners
met and discussed the merits of a Durango – wide ban on
indoor smoking. While no conclusion was reached, dialogue has
started and either a voluntary or mandatory ban on smoking has
become a possibility.
Char Day, tobacco prevention manager with the San Juan Basin
Health Department, said that awareness of smoking’s danger
has continued to grow in Durango lately. She said this awareness
is reflected in the number of restaurants that are voluntarily
posting “no smoking” signs.
“In the last 10 years, it’s been hugely significant,”
she said. “When I first started, there were seven smoke-free
restaurants in Durango. Now there are 70.”
Day noted that the reason for this shift is an obvious one, saying,
“There’s a huge trend locally toward a nonsmoking
lifestyle. The more people learn about second-hand smoke, the
more people want to be protected.”
Pack-a-day lungs
Second-hand smoke is particularly threatening for employees at
smoker-friendly businesses. Day remarked that lifetime nonsmokers
get “pack-a-day” lungs from an 8-hour shift and that,
as a result, many local business owners, particularly bar/restaurant
owners, have become concerned about employee health. Consequently,
the San Juan Basin Health Department’s Lasso Tobacco Coalition
kicked off a dialogue among these business owners Monday. The
group weighed the pros and cons of both a voluntary city-wide
initiative for a smoke-free Durango and a city ordinance that
would ban smoking in all establishments.
“These are the stakeholders,” Day said. “We
really wanted to hear what they were saying.”
Michele Redding, owner of Cuckoos, voluntarily banned smoking
in her bar/restaurant in June. She said that the move was a difficult
one.
“We were hesitant to do it because of our split atmosphere,”
Redding said. “We have people who come in to eat, but many
of our customers will be in here for seven to 11 hours watching
sports on Sundays.”
However, Redding characterizes the smoke-free Cuckoos as “fantastic,”
noting that customers and employees have applauded the decision.
She added that in spite of fears about a financial hit, business
has actually improved.
“We are really happy with our decision,” she said.
“A large part of it was our personal feelings about smoking.
Our employees were also pushing the health issue and many of our
workers had just quit smoking.”4
Struggling with mandatory
Kris Oyler, part-owner of Steamworks Brewing Co., said that his
establishment has already taken steps to reduce the impacts of
second-hand smoke on nonsmokers. “We’re kind of unique
in that we’ve got these high ceilings and a huge building,
and we’ve installed smoke eaters, which are really effective,”
he said. “In our establishment, you pretty much have to
be sitting next to a smoker to be impacted.”
Oyler said that the prospect of banning smoking in Steamworks
and Durango is a two-sided one. “I have some very mixed
feelings about whether we should be legislating these things,”
he said. “I’m not really in favor of telling people
what to do with their lives. At the same time, there are concerns
about the health of nonsmoking employees and customers.”
As to whether he and his business partners would consider a voluntary
ban on smoking, Oyler replied: “It’s something we’ll
probably table and discuss as a management team. It would have
to be something that everyone was in favor of. There’s a
good chance that we’d end up alienating quite a few customers
and that’s not a situation anyone wants to be in.”
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| Steamworks Brewing’s bar,
seen above, could be one of many Durango establishments that
currently permit smoking that would be affected by a possible
citywide ban on smoking./Photo by Todd Newcomer |
Struggling with voluntary
Lady Falconburgh’s Barley Exchange is a bar/restaurant
that has been weighing the merits of a smoking ban for several
years, according to part-owner Zak Sinberg. “It definitely
impacts employee health and there’s also customer dissatisfaction
to think about,” he said.
Unlike Oyler, Sinberg said a mandatory ban on smoking throughout
Durango would not be a problem from his perspective. “I’m
all for the city saying ‘no smoking’ in the bars and
restaurants,” he said. “It’s enforced everywhere
else. I don’t see why it has to be a voluntary thing in
Durango.”
Sinberg said that Lady Falconburgh’s would likely join
a voluntary smoke-free initiative as well. However, he said a
voluntary move would be more complicated from a business perspective.
“I think it’s corporate suicide to be one of the
first places to say it’s going to voluntarily ban smoking,”
he said. “There are 28 other places in a 10 block radius
where you can go and get a drink and have a smoke.”
Moral and legal obligation
Even though dialogue on a smoke-free Durango has just begun,
Palace Restaurant owner Paul Gelose came out of Monday’s
meeting and went into action. Currently, the Palace’s dining
rooms are smoke-free, but smoking is permitted inside the Quiet
Lady Tavern, the restaurant’s bar. Gelose said that is likely
to change after the first of the year.
“I’m directed morally and legally to provide a safe
workplace,” Gelose said. “My employees are such an
important part of my business that at this time, I am considering
going to a smoke-free establishment as of the beginning of January.”
Gelose said that he is hopeful that momentum will build throughout
Durango and that a number of local establishments will make the
move after the first of the year along with him. “We live
in this environment, and it’s time to protect the workplace,”
he said.
Day said that the San Juan Basin Health Department is happy to
have the discussion going and hopes to move toward making downtown
Durango free of second-hand smoke. “We’re not quite
there yet,” she said. “There’s a lot of talk
that needs to happen about what a smoke-free Durango would look
like.”
Anyone interested in participating in a smoke-free Durango initiative
is encouraged to contact Day at 247-5702, Ext. 227 or char@sjbhd.org.
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