Delamere Reassures Restaurant/bar Owners On Smoking Bans

Associate Health Minister, Hon Tuariki Delamere, moved today to allay fears among restaurant and bar-owners about a possible loss of revenue if smoking bans in their places of business became law.

"Although the tobacco companies may be telling bar and restaurant owners that smokers will stay away if they can't light up, research and experience in the United States shows that quite the reverse is true," he said.

"A major study earlier this year in New York City, America's largest dining market with more than 22,000 restaurants, showed that sales there had increased by 2% since the smoking ban took effect in January 1995.

In the rest of New York State, with less strict anti-smoking laws, sales decreased by 4 percent.

"Researchers say that some smokers did report dining out less frequently, but non-smokers, who outnumber smokers by four to one, said they dined out more frequently.

"Elsewhere, research in Massachusetts restaurants showed that, on average, restaurant revenue in smokefree towns rose four percent, but fell by 2 percent in towns that did not severely restrict smoking.

"In California, where seven communities ban smoking in bars, researchers found none of them lost any business, indeed, six of them experienced increases in sales.

"I am also interested in the comments of the American bar and restaurant owners that they found the health of their employees had improved and their cleaning costs had gone down, as a result of the anti-smoking laws.

"It is for these reasons that I am urging my Parliamentary colleague, Tukuroirangi Morgan, to include smoking bans in bars and restaurants in his proposed Member's Bill on the topic," concluded Mr Delamere.