BY DARRELL HALEN
Beginning Sept. 17, you will no longer be greeted with “do you want smoking or nonsmoking?” in any local restaurant.
And the air in the local bars you might frequent will be much cleaner.
That’s because on Sept. 17, New Hampshire’s ban on smoking in restaurants and cocktail lounges goes into effect.
“The science is clear – secondhand smoke poses a dangerous health risk,” said Gov. John Lynch when he signed the smoking ban into law in June. “Smoking is banned in almost every other workplace in New Hampshire. We should not continue to subject our hardworking citizens in the restaurant industry to the harmful danger of secondhand smoke.”
With the new law, New Hampshire joins more than a dozen states and hundreds of counties and cities that prohibit smoking in restaurants, bars or both.
The smoking ban legislation, Senate Bill 42, was passed in the Senate 17-7 and in the House by a nearly 2-1 margin this year.
Opponents of the bill said the state shouldn’t get involved – that smoking is a customer and worker choice and the restaurant industry is going smoke-free anyway. They tried unsuccessfully to create an exception for fully enclosed smoking rooms in some businesses.
Supporters cited a poll that found that 79 percent of respondents favored a smoking ban, and said the bill would protect the health of the public, including workers.
“Those who wait on tables or tend bar in our restaurants must work to make ends meet – to pay the rent, to provide for their children,” Lynch said. “Today, we are making a statement. We are telling these hardworking men and women that we care about them. We care and are committed to providing a safe, healthy work environment.”
Private clubs hosting members-only functions are exempt from the new law.
The smoking ban became reality this year after a narrow miss last year.
In 2006, a similar bill passed the House but lost in the Senate by one vote.
Sen. Lou D’Allesandro, whose district includes Goffstown, was a co-sponsor this year of SB 42.
Like Lynch, he said he is concerned about restaurant workers being exposed to secondhand smoke. And he said that
restaurant owners who had voluntarily implemented a smoking ban had told him they did not experience a negative impact on their business. In some cases, it went up slightly.
“From an economic standpoint, it’s not a negative,” D’Allesandro said. “From a health standpoint, it’s a real positive.
The quality of life in New Hampshire – it sustains that.”
Health organizations such as the American Cancer Society and Breathe New Hampshire were some of the bill’s strongest advocates.
During the 2006 legislative session, the New Hampshire Lodging and Restaurant Association did not take a formal position on the smoking ban bill. In 2007, the group opposed SB 42, arguing that the decision to go smoke free should be left up to business owners, according to its lobbyist, Henry Veilleux.
Some restaurants were already going smoke-free and the organization believed the “market can take care of itself,” he said.
Many of the group’s members expected the bill to pass this year. Now that the smoking ban is on the books, Veilleux said, owners are prepared to make the change in September.