The case against secondhand smoke got a big boost on June 27 when the Surgeon General's report was released, which states there is "no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke," according to the Department of Health Human Services news release. "Even brief exposure to secondhand smoke has immediate adverse effects on the cardiovascular system and increases risk for heart disease and lung cancer."
Perhaps no one was happier to hear the news of the Surgeon General's report than Montgomery Councilmember Phil Andrews, who was the lead sponsor or the 2003 bill banning smoking in restaurants when it was signed by County Executive Douglas M. Duncan, who had vetoed the identical bill in 1999. He frequently mentions the health hazards that customers and restaurant employees are subjected to by secondhand smoke.
Supporters of the smoking ban claim to be vindicated by the data released by the Maryland State comptrollers' office. During the bill's debate, the argument raised against it was that restaurants would lose their smoking patrons and may have to shut down.
However, restaurant sales tax receipts rose 19% last year (i.e., between October 2004 and the end of September 2005) compared to the year before the smoke-free restaurant law took effect in October 2003. The sales tax receipts had risen 7% in the year immediately following the passage of the law. "Our restaurant industry continues to thrive," said Andrews.
"When I introduced the Smoke-free Restaurant bill in 1999, Big Tobacco ran scare ads claiming that Silver Spring would become a ghost town…The Council was right to lead the way and put the public health first," said Isiah Leggett.
When the law went into effect for Montgomery County, it did not apply to the municipalities. Since then, Rockville and Gaithersburg made it the law. Talbot County, Prince George's County, the District of Columbia, Charles County and Howard County have also approved smoke-free restaurant laws. New York, New Jersey and Delaware have state-wide bans on restaurant smoking, but not Maryland or Virginia.
Maryland Restaurant Association Disputes Andrews' Conclusions
The Maryland Restaurant Association's spokesperson, Melvin Thompson, disputed Andrews' and Leggett's conclusions. Thompson points out a serious flaw in the methodology. He cites the Washington Times quoting County Executive Doug Duncan that 77% of Montgomery County restaurants were already smoke free prior to the ban. "That means that the smoking ban affected only 23% of the restaurants." To measure of impact accurately, the sales tax receipts should have been restricted to the 23% that allowed smoking prior to the ban, said Thompson.
Thompson claims that Andrews' numbers are inflated by sales at "donut shops, carry-out establishments, pizza delivery, Coffee Shops, McDonalds, and other fast food places in which smoking was prohibited before the ban took effect anyway."
Thompson said the supporters of the smoke-free restaurant law have "an interest in fabricating data to prove what they want to believe." In a letter sent to state legislatures, dated November 2, 2005, Thompson describes his own study:
"We released 2003/2004 comparison data acquired from the Maryland Comptroller showing that sales at bars and restaurants with liquor licenses in Montgomery County remained statistically flat (increasing by only .025 percent) when compared to neighboring Frederick County (which grew by 7 percent in the same segment) and Howard County (which grew by 6 percent in the same segment). Sales [at bars and restaurants with liquor licenses] in neighboring Prince George's County also remained statistically flat, increasing only by .01 percent."
While Thompson's data doesn't prove that the ban hurt Montgomery County restaurants, it is more focused on the restaurants/bars which were actually impacted by the smoking ban. Additionally, he introduces some anecdotal data that show how at least some of these restaurant/bars were hurt.
"Many restaurants have reduced their evening bar hours because most of their bar customers have disappeared," said Thompson. He said that many restaurants have told him that their bar sales have still not recovered. Some of these places had to lay off staff or cut back hours, he said.
Thompson mentioned that Anchor Inn Seafood (Wheaton), Montgomery's Grill (Bethesda), Dietle's Tavern (Silver Spring), Buffalo Billiards (Gaithersburg) and Tropics (Germantown) were forced to close down because of the smoking ban.
According to a Washington Post article written a year after the ban took effect, Selby Scaggs, owner of the Anchor Inn in Wheaton, said, "The first Monday night football after the ban, the difference in sales from the previous week was 20% less." He stated the ban was a contributing factor in his decision to close the restaurant in August 2004—less than a year after the ban (Oct 7, 2004).
New Surgeon General's Report Weighs In To the Debate
The scientific community appears to have reached a consensus since the Surgeon General's first report in 1986 on the health consequences of secondhand smoke. There is no "wiggle room" now for tolerating some secondhand smoke.
Here are a couple of statements from the Surgeon General summarizing the highpoints of the report:
• Nonsmokers who are exposed to secondhand smoke, at home or at work, increase their risk of developing lung cancer by 20% to 30%. Secondhand smoke causes approximately 3,000 lung cancer deaths among U.S. nonsmokers each year.
• Nonsmokers who are exposed to secondhand smoke, at home or at work, increase their risk of developing heart disease by 25% to 30%. The evidence indicates that even brief secondhand smoke exposures can have immediate adverse effects on the cardiovascular system.
• Secondhand smoke causes tens of thousands of heart disease deaths each year among U.S. nonsmokers.
• The report found that even "sophisticated" ventilation systems cannot completely eliminate secondhand smoke exposure from an indoor space.
Several restaurateurs had made considerable investments in upgrading their ventilation systems and creating enclosed bar areas before the ban. For example, Scaggs said in the Washington Post article cited above that he invested about $300,000 in a new ventilation system for the bar portion of the restaurant. The new thinking of this Surgeon General report is that no ventilation system can eliminate this serious health hazard, and the only alternative is to create a smoke-free environment.
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